美国斯坦福大学Robert C. Malenka研究团队发现伏前扣带回皮层（ACC）到隔核（NAc）的投射调控疼痛和镇痛的社交转移。这一研究成果发表在2021年1月8日出版的国际学术期刊《科学》上。

研究人员观察到，与经历疼痛或吗啡镇痛作用的小鼠进行短暂社交互动会将这些体验转移给其社交伙伴。光遗传学操作表明大脑前扣带回皮层（ACC）及其投射到伏隔核（NAc）选择性参与了疼痛和镇痛的社交转移。相比之下，ACC→NAc回路并不参与恐惧的社交转移，因为恐惧的转移取决于ACC对基底外侧杏仁核的投射。

这些发现表明，ACC是与人共情反应密切相关的大脑区域，它通过影响不同的下游靶标来介导小鼠不同形式的共情。

据了解，共情是社交的重要组成部分，其包括可以感受他人的感官和情绪状态。

附：英文原文

Title: Anterior cingulate inputs to nucleus accumbens control the social transfer of pain and analgesia

Author: Monique L. Smith, Naoyuki Asada, Robert C. Malenka

Issue&Volume: 2021/01/08

Abstract: Empathy is an essential component of social communication that involves experiencing others’ sensory and emotional states. We observed that a brief social interaction with a mouse experiencing pain or morphine analgesia resulted in the transfer of these experiences to its social partner. Optogenetic manipulations demonstrated that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and its projections to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) were selectively involved in the social transfer of both pain and analgesia. By contrast, the ACC→NAc circuit was not necessary for the social transfer of fear, which instead depended on ACC projections to the basolateral amygdala. These findings reveal that the ACC, a brain area strongly implicated in human empathic responses, mediates distinct forms of empathy in mice by influencing different downstream targets.

DOI: 10.1126/science.abe3040

Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6525/153