THE ANTERIOR CINGULATE CORTEX MEDIATES CONCERN TOWARD DISTRESSED CONSPECIFICS THROUGH OLFACTORY SIGNALS IN RATS

Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It involves cognitive processes influenced by the affective states of others, as well as an individual’s responses to those emotional states. Empathy-like behaviors—such as emotional contagion, empathic concern, and consolatory responses—have been observed across various mammalian species, including rodents. We previously established that rats exhibit empathy-like behaviors toward sex-matched, unfamiliar conspecifics that have been injected with the emetogenic agent lithium chloride (LiCl). In the three-chambered social affective preference paradigm, rats preferentially approached LiCl-treated conspecifics over those treated with saline, indicating that they can recognize and respond to the nauseated state of others. These behaviors appear to be mediated by olfactory signals, as rats consistently preferred the body odor of distressed conspecifics. Furthermore, olfactory ablation induced by intraperitoneal injection of methimazole partially disrupted the preference behavior toward LiCl-treated conspecifics and their odors. Additionally, chemogenetic inhibition of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) impaired approach behaviors toward distressed conspecifics. Retrograde tracing using an AAV vector revealed that the ACC receives inputs from several regions involved in odor processing, including the piriform cortex and the mediodorsal thalamus. Our current studies aim to identify neural inputs to the ACC that mediate the preference for LiCl-treated conspecifics and their odors.