背景:最近的研究已将移情缺陷确定为自闭症谱系障碍患者的核心损害和诊断标准;然而,同理心的改善主要集中在没有目标调节的行为干预上。我们试图比较与类似同理心的恐惧和疼痛行为相关的大脑区域,并探讨催产素-催产素受体系统在恐惧共情中的作用。
方法:我们使用C57BL小鼠建立了2种恐惧共情和疼痛共情模型。我们采用免疫荧光组织化学技术观察整个大脑中c-Fos的表达,随后定量了不同大脑区域c-Fos阳性细胞的数量。此外,我们利用化学遗传学技术在Oxt-Cret-/+小鼠中选择性操纵这些神经元,以确定催产素在这一过程中的作用.
结果:恐惧同理心激活的区域是前扣带回皮质,基底外侧杏仁核,伏隔核,室旁核(PVN),外侧罗布,腹侧和背侧海马体。疼痛共情激活的区域是前扣带皮质,基底外侧杏仁核,伏隔核,和外侧罗布。我们发现,增加PVN区域催产素神经元的活性增强了对恐惧移情的反应。这种增强可以通过催产素受体介导。
结论:这项研究仅包括雄性动物,这限制了对研究结果的更广泛的解释。需要对电路功能进行进一步的研究。
结论:与恐惧和疼痛共情调节有关的脑区表现出区别;小鼠PVN神经元的活动与共情行为呈正相关。这些发现强调了PVN催产素途径在调节恐惧移情中的作用,并表明催产素信号在介导移情反应中的重要性。
BACKGROUND: Recent studies have identified empathy deficit as a core impairment and diagnostic criterion for people with autism spectrum disorders; however, the improvement of empathy focuses primarily on behavioural interventions without the target regulation. We sought to compare brain regions associated with empathy-like behaviours of fear and pain, and to explore the role of the oxytocin-oxytocin receptor system in fear empathy.
METHODS: We used C57BL mice to establish 2 models of fear empathy and pain empathy. We employed immunofluorescence histochemical techniques to observe the expression of c-Fos throughout the entire brain and subsequently quantified the number of c-Fos-positive cells in different brain regions. Furthermore, we employed chemogenetic technology to selectively manipulate these neurons in Oxt-Cre-/+ mice to identify the role of oxytocin in this process.
RESULTS: The regions activated by fear empathy were the anterior cingulate cortex, basolateral amygdala, nucleus accumbens, paraventricular nucleus (PVN), lateral habenula, and ventral and dorsal hippocampus. The regions activated by pain empathy were the anterior cingulate cortex, basolateral amygdala, nucleus accumbens, and lateral habenula. We found that increasing the activity of oxytocin neurons in the PVN region enhanced the response to fear empathy. This enhancement may be mediated through oxytocin receptors.
CONCLUSIONS: This study included only male animals, which restricts the broader interpretation of the findings. Further investigations on circuit function need to be conducted.
CONCLUSIONS: The brain regions implicated in the regulation of fear and pain empathy exhibit distinctions; the activity of PVN neurons was positively correlated with empathic behaviour in mice. These findings highlight the role of the PVN oxytocin pathway in regulating fear empathy and suggest the importance of oxytocin signalling in mediating empathetic responses.