title: Empathy and reversed empathy of stress in mice.
abstract: Empathy is an emotional response to display of distress in others and reversed-empathy is an emotional response to non-distressed others in distressed subjects. Stress has memory enhancing effect on aversive experience. Here, I examine empathy and reversed empathy using the memory enhancing effects of stress in mice. Restrain stress enhanced aversive memory of a floor with electric shock, but restrain stress, with cage mates also restrained, reduced the enhancing effect. On the other hand, restrain stress with free-moving cage mates increased the memory enhancing effect, suggesting the stronger stress. This is the reversed-empathy. Level of corticosterone is the highest after the restrain with free-moving mates and lowest after the restrain with restrained mates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan. swat@flet.keio.ac.jp
authors.forename: Shigeru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Watanabe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000378:metabolism; D004597:Electroshock; D004645:Empathy; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D012149:Restraint, Physical; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D003345:Corticosterone