Prairie voles are highly social, but whether they show 'empathy' is unknown. Here, 'demonstrator' prairie voles subjected to a stressor (footshocks) were then placed with 'observer' prairie voles, which groomed the demonstrators. Grooming reduced demonstrators' anxiety-like behaviour and was specific for demonstrators known to the observer, suggesting that it is a social behaviour. Injection of an oxytocin receptor antagonist into the anterior cingulate cortex — a region implicated in empathy in humans — of observers blocked this consolation behaviour.
References
Burkett, J. P. et al. Oxytocin-dependent consolation behavior in rodents. Science 351, 375–378 (2016)
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Bray, N. Soothing grooming. Nat Rev Neurosci 17, 138 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.17