Negative energy balance hinders prosocial helping behavior.

ABSTRACT: The internal state of an animal, including homeostatic requirements, modulates its behavior. Negative energy balance stimulates hunger, thus promoting a range of actions aimed at obtaining food. While these survival actions are well established, the influence of the energy status on prosocial behavior remains unexplored. We developed a paradigm to assess helping behavior in which a free mouse was faced with a conspecific trapped in a restrainer. We measured the willingness of the free mouse to liberate the confined mouse under diverse metabolic conditions. Around 42% of ad libitum-fed mice exhibited a helping behavior, as evidenced by the reduction in the latencies to release the trapped cagemate. This behavior was independent of subsequent social contact reward and was associated with cha

SUBMITTER: Pozo M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10104524 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature