Rigney Nicole, Hong Weizhe
Department of Neurobiology and Department of Biological Chemistry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California.
Department of Neurobiology and Department of Biological Chemistry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California.
Biol Psychiatry. 2025 May 15;97(10):961-970. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.03.003. Epub 2025 Mar 14.
Prosocial helping behavior, characterized by voluntary actions taken to benefit others, plays a vital role in promoting cooperation and maintaining social bonds across human and animal social groups. In this review, we examine key conceptual issues surrounding prosocial behavior, focusing specifically on targeted helping and comforting actions. We outline the behavioral paradigms used to study these two types of prosocial behaviors and summarize recent insights into their underlying neural mechanisms. Drawing on findings across species and with an emphasis on rodent models, we discuss how these behaviors are regulated by molecularly and anatomically defined neural systems and how distinct neuronal populations and circuits may differentially regulate targeted helping and comforting behaviors. Lastly, we discuss the clinical relevance of this research by addressing the implications of prosocial deficits in psychiatric disorders.
亲社会帮助行为以旨在使他人受益的自愿行动为特征，在促进人类和动物社会群体中的合作以及维持社会联系方面发挥着至关重要的作用。在本综述中，我们研究了围绕亲社会行为的关键概念问题，特别关注有针对性的帮助和安慰行为。我们概述了用于研究这两种亲社会行为的行为范式，并总结了对其潜在神经机制的最新见解。借鉴跨物种的研究结果并着重于啮齿动物模型，我们讨论了这些行为如何由分子和解剖学定义的神经系统调节，以及不同的神经元群体和回路如何可能以不同方式调节有针对性的帮助和安慰行为。最后，我们通过探讨亲社会行为缺陷在精神疾病中的影响来讨论这项研究的临床相关性。
