Asadi Ehsan, Khodagholi Fariba, Asadi Sareh, Mohammadi Kamsorkh Hamed, Kaveh Neda, Maleki Ali
Neuroscience Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Neuroscience Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Brain Res. 2021 Sep 15;1767:147568. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2021.147568. Epub 2021 Jun 27.
Empathy is the ability to experience a shared affective state as others. It enhances group living and manifests itself as helping behavior towards a distressed person. It also can flourish by nurturing. Recent findings suggest that rodents exhibit empathy-like behavior towards their conspecifics. However, the role of early-life experiences (e.g., maternal care) is not clear on the development of empathy-like behavior. Moreover, brain-derived neutrophilic factor (BDNF) is a pivotal protein in modulating the brain's function and behaviors. Evidence suggests that the expression of the BDNF gene can be affected by the quality of maternal care. In this study, we questioned whether variation in maternal care modulates empathy-like behavior of male rats in adulthood. Additionally, gene expression of BDNF was measured in the amygdala, hippocampus, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex, and striatum in these adult male rats. Based on the pattern of maternal care, the offspring were divided into high maternal care (HMC) and low maternal care (LMC) groups. We confirmed that the early-life experience of HMC significantly promoted the empathy-like behavior of rats in adulthood compared to LMC. In terms of gene expression, the HMC group consistently had higher BDNF gene expression in all studied regions, except anterior cingulate cortex which groups were not different. Taken together, it suggests that maternal care in infancy predicts empathy-like behavior in adulthood and differences in BDNF gene expression in different brain regions may reflect the underlying mechanism.
同理心是一种能够像他人一样体验共同情感状态的能力。它促进群体生活，并表现为对处于痛苦中的人的帮助行为。它也可以通过培养而发展。最近的研究结果表明，啮齿动物对同种个体表现出类似同理心的行为。然而，早期生活经历（如母性关怀）对类似同理心行为发展的作用尚不清楚。此外，脑源性神经营养因子（BDNF）是调节大脑功能和行为的关键蛋白质。有证据表明，BDNF基因的表达会受到母性关怀质量的影响。在本研究中，我们探讨了母性关怀的差异是否会调节成年雄性大鼠的类似同理心行为。此外，还测量了这些成年雄性大鼠杏仁核、海马体、脑岛、前扣带回皮层、前额叶皮层和纹状体中BDNF的基因表达。根据母性关怀模式，将后代分为高母性关怀（HMC）组和低母性关怀（LMC）组。我们证实，与LMC组相比，HMC组的早期生活经历显著促进了成年大鼠的类似同理心行为。在基因表达方面，除前扣带回皮层两组无差异外，HMC组在所有研究区域的BDNF基因表达均持续较高。综上所述，这表明婴儿期的母性关怀可预测成年期的类似同理心行为，不同脑区BDNF基因表达的差异可能反映了其潜在机制。
