Toward A Cross-Species Understanding Of Empathy
The ability of animals to experience empathy has been a subject of interest for researchers, especially when it comes to non-human primates. This piece takes a new approach by reviewing recent studies on rodents’ ability to experience what scientists refer to as a primal form of empathy. Studies such as these that point to the complex emotional lives of animals help reinforce that they are “someone, not something.”
[Abstract excerpted from original source.]
“Although signs of empathy have now been well documented in non-human primates, only during the past few years have systematic observations suggested that a primal form of empathy exists in rodents. Thus, the study of empathy in animals has started in earnest. Here we review recent studies indicating that rodents are able to share states of fear, and highlight how affective neuroscience approaches to the study of primary-process emotional systems can help to delineate how primal empathy is constituted in mammalian brains. Cross-species evolutionary approaches to understanding the neural circuitry of emotional ‘contagion’ or ‘resonance’ between nearby animals, together with the underlying neurochemistries, may help to clarify the origins of human empathy.”