Rats respond to aversive emotional arousal of human handlers with the activation of the basolateral and central amygdala

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cris.lastimport.scopus2025-08-31T03:14:23Z
dc.abstract.enReading danger signals may save an animal’s life, and learning about threats from others allows avoiding first- hand aversive and often fatal experiences. Fear expressed by other individuals, including those belonging to other species, may indicate the presence of a threat in the environment and is an important social cue. Humans and other animals respond to conspecifics’ fear with increased activity of the amygdala, the brain struc-ture crucial for detecting threats and mounting an appropriate response to them. It is unclear, however, whether the cross- species transmission of threat information involves similar mechanisms, e.g., whether animals respond to the aversively induced emotional arousal of humans with activation of fear- processing circuits in the brain. Here, we report that when rats interact with a human caregiver who had recently undergone fear conditioning, they show risk assessment behavior and enhanced amygdala activation. The amygdala response involves its two major parts, the basolateral and central, which detect a threat and orchestrate defensive responses. Further, we show that humans who learn about a threat by observing another aversively aroused human, similar to rats, activate the basolateral and centromedial parts of the amygdala. Our results demonstrate that rats detect the emotional arousal of recently aversively stimulated caregivers and suggest that cross- species social transmission of threat information may involve similar neural circuits in the amygdala as the within- species transmission.
dc.affiliationLaboratorium Neuronauki Emocji w Poznaniu
dc.affiliationWydział Psychologii i Prawa w Poznaniu
dc.affiliationInstytut Psychologii
dc.contributor.authorKaźmierowska, Anna M.
dc.contributor.authorKostecki, Mateusz
dc.contributor.authorSzczepanik, Michał
dc.contributor.authorNikolaev, Tomasz
dc.contributor.authorHamed, Adam
dc.contributor.authorMichałowski, Jarosław
dc.contributor.authorWypych, Marek
dc.contributor.authorMarchewka, Artur
dc.contributor.authorKnapska, Ewelina
dc.date.access2023-11-10
dc.date.accessioned2023-11-10T09:11:31Z
dc.date.available2023-11-10T09:11:31Z
dc.date.created2023-10-05
dc.date.issued2023-11-07
dc.description.abstract<jats:p>Reading danger signals may save an animal’s life, and learning about threats from others allows avoiding first-hand aversive and often fatal experiences. Fear expressed by other individuals, including those belonging to other species, may indicate the presence of a threat in the environment and is an important social cue. Humans and other animals respond to conspecifics’ fear with increased activity of the amygdala, the brain structure crucial for detecting threats and mounting an appropriate response to them. It is unclear, however, whether the cross-species transmission of threat information involves similar mechanisms, e.g., whether animals respond to the aversively induced emotional arousal of humans with activation of fear-processing circuits in the brain. Here, we report that when rats interact with a human caregiver who had recently undergone fear conditioning, they show risk assessment behavior and enhanced amygdala activation. The amygdala response involves its two major parts, the basolateral and central, which detect a threat and orchestrate defensive responses. Further, we show that humans who learn about a threat by observing another aversively aroused human, similar to rats, activate the basolateral and centromedial parts of the amygdala. Our results demonstrate that rats detect the emotional arousal of recently aversively stimulated caregivers and suggest that cross-species social transmission of threat information may involve similar neural circuits in the amygdala as the within-species transmission.</jats:p>
dc.description.accesstimeat_publication
dc.description.issue46
dc.description.physical1-9
dc.description.versionfinal_author
dc.description.volume120
dc.identifier.doi10.1073/pnas.2302655120
dc.identifier.issn0027-8424
dc.identifier.issn1091-6490
dc.identifier.urihttps://share.swps.edu.pl/handle/swps/142
dc.languageen
dc.pbn.affiliationpsychologia
dc.rightsCC-BY-NC-ND
dc.rights.questionYes_rights
dc.share.articleOPEN_JOURNAL
dc.subject.ensocial transmission of threat information
dc.subject.enbasolateral amygdala
dc.subject.encentromedial amygdala
dc.subject.encross- species
dc.subject.eninterspecies
dc.swps.sciencecloudsend
dc.titleRats respond to aversive emotional arousal of human handlers with the activation of the basolateral and central amygdala
dc.title.journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typeArticle