Yamagishi Atsuhito, Lee Joungmin, Sato Nobuya
Department of Psychological Sciences, Kwansei Gakuin University, 1-1-155, Uegahara, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, 662-8501, Japan.
Department of Psychological Sciences, Kwansei Gakuin University, 1-1-155, Uegahara, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, 662-8501, Japan.
Behav Brain Res. 2020 Sep 1;393:112790. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2020.112790. Epub 2020 Jun 27.
Empathy toward the distress of others is thought to motivate helping behaviour, in the form of voluntary action to eliminate that distress. Neuropeptide oxytocin is associated with various social cognitive abilities, including empathy and prosocial behaviour. The anterior cingulate cortex is known to be one of the brain regions underlying empathy, and one in which oxytocin receptors are expressed. However, the relationship between helping behaviour and oxytocin in the anterior cingulate cortex is still unclear. The present study investigated whether oxytocin in the anterior cingulate cortex is involved in rats' helping behaviour. In Experiment 1, we examined the influence of blockading the oxytocin receptors in the anterior cingulate cortex on helping behaviour. Impeding oxytocin in the anterior cingulate cortex delayed learning of the helping behaviour. In Experiment 2, we examined immunofluorescent colocalization of oxytocin receptors and c-fos proteins in the anterior cingulate cortex, the anterior insular cortex, and the amygdala in rats that acquired helping behaviour. We found increased c-fos expression in oxytocin receptor-containing neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala when the rats acquired helping behaviour. In addition, the change in neural activation was found in the late phase of the learning. These results suggest that the oxytocin in the cingulate-amygdala pathways may play an important role in helping behaviour.
对他人痛苦的同理心被认为会激发帮助行为，即通过自愿行动来消除这种痛苦。神经肽催产素与包括同理心和亲社会行为在内的各种社会认知能力有关。前扣带回皮质是已知的同理心背后的脑区之一，且该区域表达催产素受体。然而，前扣带回皮质中帮助行为与催产素之间的关系仍不清楚。本研究调查了前扣带回皮质中的催产素是否参与大鼠的帮助行为。在实验1中，我们研究了阻断前扣带回皮质中的催产素受体对帮助行为的影响。在前扣带回皮质中阻碍催产素会延迟帮助行为的学习。在实验2中，我们检测了获得帮助行为的大鼠前扣带回皮质、前岛叶皮质和杏仁核中催产素受体与c-fos蛋白的免疫荧光共定位。我们发现，当大鼠获得帮助行为时，前扣带回皮质和杏仁核中含催产素受体的神经元中c-fos表达增加。此外，在学习后期发现了神经激活的变化。这些结果表明，扣带回-杏仁核通路中的催产素可能在帮助行为中起重要作用。
