@article{f980b67fed4343458f3123e0c6711cd7,
title = "Evolutionarily conserved role of oxytocin in social fear contagion in zebrafish",
abstract = "Emotional contagion is the most ancestral form of empathy. We tested to what extent the proximate mechanisms of emotional contagion are evolutionarily conserved by assessing the role of oxytocin, known to regulate empathic behaviors in mammals, in social fear contagion in zebrafish. Using oxytocin and oxytocin receptor mutants, we show that oxytocin is both necessary and sufficient for observer zebrafish to imitate the distressed behavior of conspecific demonstrators. The brain regions associated with emotional contagion in zebrafish are homologous to those involved in the same process in rodents (e.g., striatum, lateral septum), receiving direct projections from oxytocinergic neurons located in the pre-optic area. Together, our results support an evolutionary conserved role for oxytocin as a key regulator of basic empathic behaviors across vertebrates.",
author = "Ibukun Akinrinade and Kyriacos Kareklas and Teles, {Magda C} and Reis, {Thais K} and Michael Gliksberg and Giovanni Petri and Gil Levkowitz and Oliveira, {Rui F}",
note = "We thank all members of G. Levkowitz{\textquoteright}s and R. Oliveira{\textquoteright}s laboratories for fruitful discussions; Instituto Gulbenkian de Ci{\^e}ncia (IGC) Advanced Imaging Facility for technical support; IGC{\textquoteright}s Fish Facility for animal care and valuable advice; IGC{\textquoteright}s Histopathology Facility for technical support and valuable advice. Funding: This work was funded by a research grant from Funda{\c c}{\~a}o para a Ci{\^e}ncia e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal; ref. PTDC/BIA-COM/30627/2017) awarded to R.F.O.; I.A. was supported by a PhD Fellowship from FCT (PD/BD/106005/2014); K.K. and M.C.T. were supported by postdoc FCT fellowships (2021.01659.CEECIND and PTDC/BIA-COM/31956/2017, respectively). The G.L. laboratory is supported by Israel Science Foundation (1511/16), United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (2017325), Nella and Leon Benoziyo Center for Neurological Diseases, Richard F. Goodman Yale/Weizmann Exchange Program and Estate of Emile Mimran. G.L. is an incumbent of the Elias Sourasky Professorial Chair. The Advanced Imaging Facility of IGC is supported by the grant PPBI-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022122, and the Fish Facility is part of Congento, which is supported by grant LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-022170; both of these grants are cofinanced by the Lisbon Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and FCT (Portugal). Author contributions: Conceptualization: R.F.O., I.A., and K.K. Funding acquisition: R.F.O., I.A., and G.L. Investigation: I.A., K.K., M.C.T., T.K.R., M.G., and G.P. Methodology: G.L., G.P., and R.F.O. Visualization: I.A., K.K., M.C.T., M.G., and G.P. Writing – original draft: R.F.O., I.A., and K.K. Writing – review and editing: I.A., K.K., M.C.T., T.K.R., M.G., G.P., G.L., and R.F.O. I.A. and K.K. contributed equally to this study, and first authorship was decided alphabetically. Highlighted in {"}Science Perspective{"} by Ross S. Deangelis and Hans A. Hofmann – The spread of fear in an empathetic fish. Science 379, 1186-1187.",
year = "2023",
month = mar,
day = "24",
doi = "10.1126/science.abq5158",
language = "الإنجليزيّة",
volume = "379",
pages = "1232--1237",
journal = "Science",
issn = "0036-8075",
publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",
number = "6638",
}