A child falls into the water and, without hesitation, a stranger throws himself to save him. In the middle of the traffic, someone rushes to separate another from a car that is approaching too fast. It is not courage, nor an exceptional gesture. It is simply normal. Help who needs it is printed in human nature.
And, apparently, also in the mice. A recent study has revealed that these little rodents try revive their unconscious companions With a maneuver that could remember, in rudimentary terms, to a technique of first aid.
Small paramedics with a strong instinct to save acquaintances
Research, carried out by scientists from the Universidad del Sur de California and the University of California in Los Angelesconsisted of exposing others that were anesthetized. What they observed did not enter what they expected. The healthy mice Not only did they sniff and licked their fallen companions, but also performed a very specific action: They opened the mouth of the other and pulled their tongue.
The most surprising thing is that this behavior had a real effect. The rodents who received this peculiar assistance they woke up and recovered faster that those who were not helped.
To check if the reaction was intentionalthe researchers added an obstacle in the experiment. They placed small objects in the mouth of the unconscious mice and registered what their companions did. In 80% of cases, the conscious rodent He tried to withdraw the objectbut when the same objects were located in other parts of the body, they ignored them completely. This suggests that it was not a random response, but a Action aimed at releasing the respiratory path of fallen fellow.
The Familiarity among mice He also played an important role. The data showed that the assistance was Much more frequent When the affected rodent was a usual partner of cage, compared to strangers. This finding suggests that behavior was not simply an instinctive reflection, but was influenced by the social relationship between individuals.
As explained Huizhong Taoone of the authors of the study, “frankly, it is not so easy to discern the behavior of animals with the naked eye.” To be able to capture this behavior, they had to install “high -resolution cameras in certain angles we could capture the details of the mouse actions towards their insensitive partner”.
When empathy does not depend on size
The researchers also analyzed the brain activity of mice to understand what mechanisms could be behind this behavior. Discovered that two areas of the brain were activated during resuscitation attempts: the medial tonsil and the hypothalamusregions linked to empathy and social behavior. In addition, levels of oxytocina hormone related to attachment and care behavior in mammals, increased significantly in the rodents that tried to attend their peers.
Weizhe Hongco -author of the study, stressed that “the fact that the behavior is innate and is expressed in a lower mammal as the mouse suggests that it was developed during evolution under natural selection.”
This discovery challenges the idea that cooperation and mutual help are exclusive of species with large brains and complex social structures. Until now, it was thought that these behaviors were typical of primates, dolphins and elephants. However, the evidence suggests that the instinct of helping a companion in trouble could be much more entrenched in the evolution of mammals than it was believed.
The study also opens a new line of research in neuroscience. If the brain of the mice responds similar to the human in situations of help, this could offer valuable information about disorders in which empathy is altered, such as autism or alexitimia.
In an article published in Scienceresearchers William Sheeran and Zoe Donaldson said that “understanding how the brain of mice processes the anguish of a partner could shed light on the mechanisms that underlie these conditions in humans.”
Science continues to discover that help is not an exceptional act, but a deeply rooted instinct. Mice have shown that, in the animal world, saving another is not an choice. It is simply normal.
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