Support for Altruistic Behavior in Rats

Wrighten, Shayna A.; Hall, Chelsea R.

doi:10.4236/jss.2016.412009

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…We used rats because they form social groups of various sizes [16] and show kin [17,18] and individual recognition [19,20]. Importantly for our study, rats show a high propensity to cooperate (reviewed in [21,22]). For example, rats prefer to work with a partner, even if they could achieve the same reward individually [23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rats play tit-for-tat instead of integrating social experience over multiple interactions

Schweinfurth

Taborsky

2020

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Theoretical models of cooperation typically assume that agents use simple rules based on last encounters, such as ‘tit-for-tat’, to reciprocate help. By contrast, empiricists generally suppose that animals integrate multiple experiences over longer timespans. Here, we compared these two alternative hypotheses by exposing Norway rats to partners that cooperated on three consecutive days but failed to cooperate on the fourth day, and to partners that did the exact opposite. In additional controls, focal rats experienced cooperating and defecting partners only once. In a bar-pulling setup, focal rats based their decision to provide partners with food on last encounters instead of overall cooperation levels. To check whether this might be owing to a lack of memory capacity, we tested whether rats remember the outcome of encounters that had happened three days before. Cooperation was not diminished by the intermediate time interval. We conclude that rats reciprocate help mainly based on most recent encounters instead of integrating social experience over longer timespans.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rats play tit-for-tat instead of integrating social experience over multiple interactions

Schweinfurth

Taborsky

2020

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…On the other hand, there are studies that support the investigation of physiological and pathological aspects of empathy in laboratory rodents (for review see Wrighten and Hall, 2016 ). For example, in mice, there are clear signs of emotional contagion ( Langford et al, 2006 ; Guzmán et al, 2009 ; Bruchey et al, 2010 ; Jeon et al, 2010 ; Kim et al, 2012 ; Nowak et al, 2013 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are There Multiple Motivators for Helping Behavior in Rats?

Silva

Lima

et al. 2020

Front. Psychol.

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Empathy is the ability to (a) be affected by and share the emotional state of another; (b) assess the reasons for the other’s state; and (c) identify with the other, adopting their perspective. This phenomenon has been shown to exist in several species and is proposed as a motivator for prosocial behavior. The experimental study of this feature in laboratory rodents is a more viable alternative in comparison to wild animals. A recent report showed that rats opened a door to free their cage mate from a restraint box. Although this behavior has been suggested to be motivated by empathy, this fact has been questioned by several studies that proposed other motivators for the releasing behavior. In the present study, we use an adaptation of the protocol of releasing behavior to investigate aspects of empathy and pro-sociality such as familiarity and reciprocity. In addition, we addressed some potential motivational factors that could influence this behavior. The main results showed that (1) rats opened the restraint box to free conspecifics most of the time; (2) direct reciprocity or past restriction experience did not improve releasing performance, probably due to a ceiling effect; (3) after a series of trials in the presence of a restricted conspecific, the free rat continues to open the restraint box even if it is empty; (4) in general, the opening performance improves across trials and phases, resembling learning curves; (5) if the first series of trials occurs with the empty box, the opening behavior does not occur and is modest in subsequent trials with a trapped animal; (6) the exploratory drive toward the restraint box and desire for social contact do not seem to function as key motivators for releasing behavior. In conclusion, our findings do not support that the opening behavior is exclusively related to empathic motivation. While multiple factors might be involved, our study suggests that task learning triggered (and possibly reinforced) by the presence of the restricted rat can function as a motivator. Further investigations are required to fully understand the mechanisms and motivation factors guiding the releasing behavior.

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“…Currently, the psychological basis of prosocial behaviour and its fundamental mechanisms remain unclear 5–8 . Interestingly, in recent years, it has been reported that rats also show prosocial behaviour 9–13 . Rats rescued others in various situations, they donated food, they groomed conspecifics, and they freed trapped conspecifics 9,12 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Helping-Like Behaviour in Mice Towards Conspecifics Constrained Inside Tubes

Ueno

Suemitsu

Murakami

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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Prosocial behaviour, including helping behaviour, benefits others. Recently, helping-like behaviour has been observed in rats, but whether it is oriented towards rescue, social contact with others, or other goals remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated whether helping-like behaviour could be observed in mice similar to that in rats. Because mice are social animals widely used in neuroscience, the discovery of helping-like behaviour in mice would be valuable in clarifying the psychological and biological mechanisms underlying pro-sociability. We constrained mice inside tubes. Subject mice were allowed to move freely in cages with tubes containing constrained conspecifics. The subject mice released both cagemates and stranger mice but did not engage in opening empty tubes. Furthermore, the same behaviour was observed under aversive conditions and with anesthetised conspecifics. Interestingly, hungry mice opened the tubes containing food before engaging in tube-opening behaviour to free constrained conspecifics. Mice showed equal preferences for constrained and freely moving conspecifics. We demonstrated for the first time that mice show tube-opening behaviour. Furthermore, we partly clarified the purpose and motivation of this behaviour. An effective mouse model for helping-like behaviour would facilitate research on the mechanisms underlying prosocial behaviour.

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Support for Altruistic Behavior in Rats

Cited by 11 publications

References 55 publications

Rats play tit-for-tat instead of integrating social experience over multiple interactions

Rats play tit-for-tat instead of integrating social experience over multiple interactions

Are There Multiple Motivators for Helping Behavior in Rats?

Helping-Like Behaviour in Mice Towards Conspecifics Constrained Inside Tubes

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