Using rats as test subjects!! Maybe it applies to some Sinkies as well? LOL..
Good Samaritans are born not raised, suggests a new study from the United States that has identified an "empathy gene".
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 8:43AM GMT 12 Feb 2009
Researchers believe that the ability to understand and share the feelings of others is at least partly innate and built into our bodies at birth.
While upbringing and the environment can modify our behaviour, scientists believe that in extreme cases the gene or lack of it could play a key role in conditions such as autism where the ability to empathise is often non-existent.
The study by a team from the University of Wisconsin and Oregon Health and Science University, showed that friendly and gregarious individuals tended also to have the gene.
In the study, published in the Public Library of Science ONE journal, compared the empathetic behaviour of various genetically different mice.
Like humans, mice can automatically sense and respond to others' positive and negative emotions, such as excitement, fear or anger, said the researchers.
Understanding empathy in mice may lead to important discoveries about the social interaction deficits seen in many human psychosocial disorders, including autism, schizophrenia, depression and addiction, the researchers say.
Researchers discovered that highly sociable strains showed empathy while those that were introverted were oblivious to other mice's feelings.
In the experiments, one mouse observed as another mouse was placed in a test chamber and trained to associate a 30-second tone with a mild foot shock.
Upon experiencing the shock, the test mouse emitted a short distress call or squeak.
Though having no direct knowledge of the shock, very social mice learned from the distress calls to associate the test chamber and tone with something negative.
When later placed in the test chamber and presented with the tone, they exhibited clear physiological signs of aversion, such as freezing, even though no shock was delivered.
In contrast, mice from a less gregarious strain – less likely to seek the company of other mice – showed no response to the tone when they were placed in the test chamber.
"Mice are capable of a more complex form of empathy than we ever believed possible," said Professor Garet Lahvis, co-author of the study.
"We believe there's a genetic contribution to the ability for empathy that has broad implications for autism research and other psychosocial disorders."
Jules Panksepp, a graduate student, added: "We think that by coming up with a simplified model of it in a mouse, we're probably getting closer to modelling symptoms of human disorders."
Good Samaritans are born not raised, suggests a new study from the United States that has identified an "empathy gene".
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 8:43AM GMT 12 Feb 2009
Researchers believe that the ability to understand and share the feelings of others is at least partly innate and built into our bodies at birth.
While upbringing and the environment can modify our behaviour, scientists believe that in extreme cases the gene or lack of it could play a key role in conditions such as autism where the ability to empathise is often non-existent.
The study by a team from the University of Wisconsin and Oregon Health and Science University, showed that friendly and gregarious individuals tended also to have the gene.
In the study, published in the Public Library of Science ONE journal, compared the empathetic behaviour of various genetically different mice.
Like humans, mice can automatically sense and respond to others' positive and negative emotions, such as excitement, fear or anger, said the researchers.
Understanding empathy in mice may lead to important discoveries about the social interaction deficits seen in many human psychosocial disorders, including autism, schizophrenia, depression and addiction, the researchers say.
Researchers discovered that highly sociable strains showed empathy while those that were introverted were oblivious to other mice's feelings.
In the experiments, one mouse observed as another mouse was placed in a test chamber and trained to associate a 30-second tone with a mild foot shock.
Upon experiencing the shock, the test mouse emitted a short distress call or squeak.
Though having no direct knowledge of the shock, very social mice learned from the distress calls to associate the test chamber and tone with something negative.
When later placed in the test chamber and presented with the tone, they exhibited clear physiological signs of aversion, such as freezing, even though no shock was delivered.
In contrast, mice from a less gregarious strain – less likely to seek the company of other mice – showed no response to the tone when they were placed in the test chamber.
"Mice are capable of a more complex form of empathy than we ever believed possible," said Professor Garet Lahvis, co-author of the study.
"We believe there's a genetic contribution to the ability for empathy that has broad implications for autism research and other psychosocial disorders."
Jules Panksepp, a graduate student, added: "We think that by coming up with a simplified model of it in a mouse, we're probably getting closer to modelling symptoms of human disorders."
