While it is evolutionarily logical for individuals to behave in ways that benefit themselves and maximize an individual’s own survival and reproduction, humans and other animals also engage in empathy and compassion-related behaviors that benefit others. In humans, the ability to understand and support the emotions or needs of others is crucial to creating a more cohesive, compassionate, and successful society. Spanning the evolutionary spectrum, animals exhibit diverse prosocial behaviors, including comforting, helping, and resource sharing, to support others’ emotions, goals, and/or material needs. Our research aims to understand various forms of empathic and prosocial behaviors and the underlying neural mechanisms. We establish behavioral paradigms in mice to study prosocial comforting and helping behaviors. Using these paradigms, combined with molecular genetics and computational approaches, we identify the molecularly and anatomically defined neural pathways in the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex that specifically encode and control these behaviors.

Time: 10:00 AM

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