• Michimasa Toyoshima, Eri Okuda, Natsu Hasegawa, Kodai Kaseda, and Kazuo Yamada.
• Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan; JSPS Research Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Chiyoda, Tokyo 102-0083, Japan. Electronic address: michimasatoyoshima@gmail.com.
• Neuroscience. 2022 Oct 15; 502: 68-76.

AbstractSocial communication of affective states between individuals, as well as actual experiences, influences their internal states and behaviors. Although prior stress experiences promote empathy-like behaviors, it remains unclear whether the social transmission of stress events modulates these behaviors. Here, we provide evidence that transferred stress experiences from cage mates modulate socioaffective approach-avoidance behaviors in rats. Male Wistar-Imamichi rats were assigned to one of five experimental groups (Control (n = 15); no shock with shocked cage mates (n = 15); low (0.1 mA, n = 15), middle (0.5 mA, n = 14), and high shock (1.0 mA, n = 14)). Except for the naïve and housed with stressed mate groups, rats received two foot-shocks (5 s for each). The next day, the subjects were allowed to explore two unfamiliar conspecifics; one was a naïve, while the other was a distressed conspecific that received two foot-shocks (1.0 mA, 5 s) immediately before the test. Rats that were housed with stressed mates, as well as those that experienced a higher intensity of foot-shocks, were more likely to approach, while naïve rats avoided, a distressed conspecific. These results suggest that socially transferred stress shifts socioaffective response styles from avoidance to approach toward a stressed conspecific in rats.Copyright © 2022 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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