Effects of heroin on rat prosocial behavior

Tomek, Seven E.; Stegmann, Gabriela

doi:10.1111/adb.12633

Cited by 25 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…That drug supposedly blocked “affective processing”, so the authors concluded that affect (i.e., empathic concern) was necessary to motivate rescue behavior. Interestingly, a similar result was obtained with heroin [ 82 ]. At that point, the empathy-based explanation of rescue activities in rats was again attacked [ 83 , 84 ].…”

Section: Rescue Behavior In Other Taxasupporting

confidence: 78%

“O Sister, Where Art Thou?”—A Review on Rescue of Imperiled Individuals in Ants

Miler

Turza

2021

Biology

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Altruism is defined as an action that decreases the lifetime direct fitness of an actor and benefits one or more recipients. This phenomenon, which is generally difficult to understand and explain, requires special research attention. The subject of this review, rescue, is a type of altruistic behavior in which the actor puts itself at risk to save another individual, the recipient, that is in danger. The highest numbers of published empirical works have been devoted to rescue behavior in ants and they have enormous potential for further study. We review studies devoted to the subject and group them into four main areas of research on ant rescue actions: (1) variation in rescue behavior activity on a between-individual scale, (2) factors contributing to the evolution of rescue behavior on a between-species scale, (3) rescue behavior releaser signals and (4) rescue behavior benefits and costs. We highlight the progress in research on rescue behavior in ants, indicate that this behavior is probably much more common than previously thought yet thus far demonstrated in only a few species, and uncover research gaps and open questions that remain unexplored. We additionally point out some gaps in knowledge that become evident when research devoted to rescue behavior in rats, the second most studied group of animals in this context, is briefly overviewed. We hope to help navigate among studies on rescue behavior and provide the most up-to-date summary of the relevant literature. Moreover, we hope to encourage and facilitate researchers in behavioral ecology and other subdisciplines to further experimentally analyze rescue behavior, not only in ants but also in other taxa.

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Section: Rescue Behavior In Other Taxasupporting

confidence: 78%

“O Sister, Where Art Thou?”—A Review on Rescue of Imperiled Individuals in Ants

Miler

Turza

2021

Biology

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“…Approximately 17% of the rats tested by Ben-Ami Bartal et al [45] rescued within the first hour of their first trial. Moreover, none of the forty-six rats tested by Tomek et al [51] opened the restrainer door within the first two minutes of their first trial (Per. Comm.).…”

Section: Comparisons To Ratsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) release their trapped and distressed owners: Individual variation and evidence of emotional contagion

2020

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Domestic dogs have assisted humans for millennia. However, the extent to which these helpful behaviors are prosocially motivated remains unclear. To assess the propensity of pet dogs to actively rescue distressed humans without explicit training, this study tested whether sixty pet dogs would release their seemingly trapped owners from a large box. To examine the causal mechanisms that shaped this behavior, the readiness of each dog to open the box was tested in three conditions: 1) the owner sat in the box and called for help (distress test), 2) an experimenter placed high-value food rewards in the box (food test), and 3) the owner sat in the box and calmly read aloud (reading test). Dogs were as likely to release their distressed owner as to retrieve treats from inside the box, indicating that rescuing an owner may be a highly rewarding action for dogs. After accounting for opening ability, dogs released the owner more often when the owner called for help than when the owner read aloud calmly. In addition, opening latencies decreased with test number in the distress test but not the reading test. Thus, rescuing the owner could not be attributed solely to social facilitation, stimulus enhancement, or social contact-seeking behavior. Dogs displayed more stress behaviors in the distress test than in the reading test, and stress scores decreased with test number in the reading test but not in the distress test. This evidence of emotional contagion supports the hypothesis that rescuing the distressed owner was an empathetically-motivated prosocial behavior. Success in the food task and previous (inhome) experience opening objects were both strong predictors of releasing the owner. Thus, prosocial behavior tests for dogs should control for physical ability and previous experience.

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“…They claimed not only that the rats showed helping behaviour, but that it was motivated by a form of empathy [21]. In follow-up studies to Bartal and colleagues seminal paper, researchers have demonstrated the influence of social learning history, anxiolytics and opioids on the helping behaviour of rats [37–39]. However, rigorous experimental control and detailed knowledge about influencing variables are needed to draw firm conclusions regarding the observations (i.e., empathic motivations and pro-social intentions).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female rats release a trapped cagemate following shaping of the door opening response: Opening latency when the restrainer was baited with food, was empty, or contained a cagemate

2019

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Research on pro-social rat behaviour is growing within the fields of comparative psychology and social neuroscience. However, much work remains on mapping important variables influencing this behaviour, and there is even disagreement on whether this behaviour is empathetically motivated and correctly labelled pro-social, or whether the behaviour is motivated by social contact. The present study used the helping behaviour paradigm where a rat can release a familiar cagemate from a restrainer. Prior to testing with a trapped cagemate, restrainer door opening was trained and baseline opening latencies when the restrainer was empty or baited with food were established. The findings show that the first-time release occurred sooner than in previous research and that rats used a previously demonstrated response to release the trapped cagemate. Further, rats opened the restrainer door more often and with shorter latencies when the restrainer contained a cagemate than when the restrainer was empty, but less often and with longer latencies than when the restrainer contained food. The test of whether illumination levels affect door-opening included in the study showed no effects.

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Effects of heroin on rat prosocial behavior

Cited by 25 publications

References 24 publications

“O Sister, Where Art Thou?”—A Review on Rescue of Imperiled Individuals in Ants

“O Sister, Where Art Thou?”—A Review on Rescue of Imperiled Individuals in Ants

Pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) release their trapped and distressed owners: Individual variation and evidence of emotional contagion

Female rats release a trapped cagemate following shaping of the door opening response: Opening latency when the restrainer was baited with food, was empty, or contained a cagemate

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