title: Empathy in prairie voles: Is this the consolation prize?
abstract: Although it is well known that humans and great apes are capable of engaging in consolation, an affiliative behavior directed toward distressed individuals, it has largely been assumed that this form of empathy was restricted to species possessing more complex cognitive functions. Recently, however, Burkett and colleagues (Science, 351, 375-378, 2016) have provided intriguing evidence that consolation behavior may be present in a socially monogamous rodent, the prairie vole. They also provide data to implicate the neuropeptide oxytocin in the regulation of this behavior, which suggests conserved neuroendocrine mechanisms between prairie voles and humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Program in Neuroscience, and Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA. gdemas@indiana.edu.
authors.forename: Gregory E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Demas
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44242, USA.
authors.forename: Aaron M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Jasnow
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003411:Arvicolinae; D004645:Empathy; D065948:Grassland; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D010121:Oxytocin
keywords: Classical conditioning; Fear conditioning; Social learning