We’re thrilled to share our latest study exploring emotional contagion using pupillometry. We’ve uncovered fascinating insights into how mice perceive and share emotional states, paving the way for a deeper understanding of empathy’s neural underpinnings.
Key Findings:
1. Pupil dilation served as a precise measure of emotional response thresholds, capturing both direct and vicarious reactions.
2. The ECo response relied on visual input—when the observer couldn’t see the demonstrator, the response diminished.
3. Even watching videos of tail-shocked mice triggered a pupil response, highlighting the role of multisensory processing.
4. Whole-brain c-Fos mapping revealed a shared network of 88 brain regions activated during ECo, with many areas engaged in both observers and demonstrators.
5. In some brain regions, observer-demonstrator pairs showed correlated neural activity, pointing to a shared neural state during ECo.
These findings provide new perspectives on how empathy is encoded in the brain and offer valuable insights for studying neuropsychiatric disorders where empathy is disrupted.
Read the full study to dive deeper into this groundbreaking research: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.20.624327v1.full.pdf
Made possibile by the great Matteo Caldarelli, Raffaele Mazziotti, Aurelia Viglione and Stefano Zucca and Alessandra Stella in Serena Bovetti lab at NICO in Turin. Great help also by BIO@SNS lab at the Scuola Normale Superiore. Supported by THE Tuscany Health Ecosystem.
