Journal Article

FZJ-2023-05329

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Rats respond to aversive emotional arousal of human handlers with the activation of the basolateral and central amygdala

Kaźmierowska, A. M. ; Kostecki, M. ; Szczepanik, M.FZJ* ; Nikolaev, T. ; Hamed, A. ; Michałowski, J. M. ; Wypych, M. ; Marchewka, A. ; Knapska, E. (Corresponding author)

2023
National Acad. of Sciences Washington, DC

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1073/pnas.2302655120  doi:10.34734/FZJ-2023-05329

Abstract: Reading danger signals may save an animal’s life, and learning about threats from others allows avoiding first-hand aversive and often fatal experiences. Fear expressed by other individuals, including those belonging to other species, may indicate the presence of a threat in the environment and is an important social cue. Humans and other animals respond to conspecifics’ fear with increased activity of the amygdala, the brain structure crucial for detecting threats and mounting an appropriate response to them. It is unclear, however, whether the cross-species transmission of threat information involves similar mechanisms, e.g., whether animals respond to the aversively induced emotional arousal of humans with activation of fear-processing circuits in the brain. Here, we report that when rats interact with a human caregiver who had recently undergone fear conditioning, they show risk assessment behavior and enhanced amygdala activation. The amygdala response involves its two major parts, the basolateral and central, which detect a threat and orchestrate defensive responses. Further, we show that humans who learn about a threat by observing another aversively aroused human, similar to rats, activate the basolateral and centromedial parts of the amygdala. Our results demonstrate that rats detect the emotional arousal of recently aversively stimulated caregivers and suggest that cross-species social transmission of threat information may involve similar neural circuits in the amygdala as the within-species transmission.

Note: Data collection and analysis were sponsored by the National Science Centre (Poland) grant 2015/19/B/HS6/02209. Ewelina Knapska was supported by the European Research Council Starting Grant (H 415148).

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Gehirn & Verhalten (INM-7)

Research Program(s):

1. 5253 - Neuroimaging (POF4-525) (POF4-525)

Appears in the scientific report 2023

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Database coverage:
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