Experimental Tests of the Adequacy of Rat Models of Human Empathy

American University, Washington DC

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Empathic behavior is central to normal human functioning. When it is absent, psychopathology is evident, taking a variety of forms such as autism, social avoidance and social phobia. Given the impact of absent or maladaptive empathy, researchers have sought animal models for evaluating its environmental and biological substrates. Some argue that a rat model of empathy can be effective in evaluating empathy in humans. A core idea of this proposal is that a rat model of human empathy may be premature. In three rat experiments, I plan to evaluate the boundary conditions of putative demonstrations of rat empathy, and depending on the results, corroborate or question whether rats can serve as an animal model of empathy. This information should be of value to those addressing intervention strategies for psychopathology in empathic function. One dataset in the proposal already provides a basis for questioning rat empathy. It shows that mother rats with a food surplus will not push food blocks under a wall to feed their hungry offspring. This finding is incompatible with empathic action; however, I do not label it as such because the failure of empathy may be due to the response of ?pushing food blocks? not being in the mothers? repertoires. Experiment 1 remedies this inadequacy by requiring two thirsty rats to drink concurrently from water spouts for those spouts to work. To test empathic action, one rat has its thirst quenched. The experimental question is whether this rat will stand beside its water spout (a floor sensor operates the spout) so that an adjacent spout will provide water to its thirsty companion. Since the relevant response has been trained, this experiment complements the unpublished dataset mentioned earlier. Should empathy fail here, it would support publishing the earlier data with these new data in a two-experiment publication. The second pair of experiments test whether rats have a preference for releasing a distressed rat from a pool of water vs. releasing a non-distressed rat from a dry space. This project assumes that prior work where one rat helps another has less to do with empathy than with seeking companionship. If the choosing rat is empathetic, it should release the wet rat. However, if it only seeks social contact, it should be indifferent in choice between these rats. A third pair of experiments will assess whether a donor rat will release a distressed recipient rat into a more distant chamber where distress is relieved. If the donor rat is empathic, it should release the other rat into a more distant space even though doing so reduces social contact. This test, along with the others in the proposal, should provide useful information on the adequacy of a rat model of empathic action.