Department of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-6520, USA.
Trends Neurosci. 2013 Aug;36(8):489-96. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2013.04.009. Epub 2013 Jun 7.
Although signs of empathy have now been well documented in non-human primates, only during the past few years have systematic observations suggested that a primal form of empathy exists in rodents. Thus, the study of empathy in animals has started in earnest. Here we review recent studies indicating that rodents are able to share states of fear, and highlight how affective neuroscience approaches to the study of primary-process emotional systems can help to delineate how primal empathy is constituted in mammalian brains. Cross-species evolutionary approaches to understanding the neural circuitry of emotional 'contagion' or 'resonance' between nearby animals, together with the underlying neurochemistries, may help to clarify the origins of human empathy.
虽然在非人类灵长类动物中已经有充分的证据表明存在同理心的迹象，但直到最近几年，系统观察才表明在啮齿类动物中存在原始形式的同理心。因此，动物同理心的研究才真正开始。在这里，我们回顾了最近的研究，这些研究表明啮齿动物能够分享恐惧状态，并强调了情感神经科学方法研究初级情绪系统如何帮助描绘哺乳动物大脑中原始同理心的构成。了解附近动物之间情感“传染”或“共鸣”的神经回路的跨物种进化方法，以及潜在的神经化学，可能有助于阐明人类同理心的起源。
