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BRAIN-WIDE MAPPING OF NEURAL ACTIVITY DURING CONSOLATION-LIKE BEHAVIOR IN MICE
Ryo Saitoand 1 co-author
The University of Tokyo
FENS Forum 2026 (2026)
Barcelona, Spain
Board PS07-10AM-388
Presentation
Date TBA
Board: PS07-10AM-388
Event Information
Poster Board
PS07-10AM-388
Poster
View posterAbstract
Empathy is a fundamental ability to recognize and share the emotional states of others and plays a pivotal role in social communication. Consolation behavior is an empathy-related affiliative behavior aimed at alleviating another individual’s pain or stress, often expressed through affiliative actions such as physical contact, including embracing. Recent studies in rodents have identified specific brain regions and neural circuits involved in consolation-like behavior; however, these studies have largely focused on predefined regions, and an unbiased identification of brain regions associated with consolation behavior remains lacking. In this study, we investigated whole-brain neural activity associated with consolation behavior by assessing c-Fos expression using brain clearing and whole-brain three-dimensional imaging. We found that mice exhibiting consolation-like behavior showed a tendency toward increased c-Fos expression in several brain regions identified by whole-brain 3D analysis. Subsequent 2D analyses identified the insular cortex and amygdala, among other regions, as showing increased activity. These findings provide an unbiased identification of brain regions associated with consolation-like behavior and offer a foundation for subsequent region-specific causal analyses.
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