Helping your fellow rat: Rodents show empathy-driven behavior
Thursday, December 8, 2011 - 15:30
in Biology & Nature
The first evidence of empathy-driven helping behavior in rodents has been observed in laboratory rats that repeatedly free companions from a restraint, according to a new study by University of Chicago neuroscientists. The observation, published today in Science, places the origin of pro-social helping behavior earlier in the evolutionary tree than previously thought.