Research shows rats often free distressed companions and even share chocolate instead of keeping rewards. Neuroscience suggests this behavior involves emotional contagion and activity within the anterior cingulate cortex and reward circuits, which process another animal's distress and motivate helping. These mammalian networks resemble empathy related systems seen in humans, indicating that compassionate responses evolved long before people appeared. The findings support the idea that prosocial behavior has deep biological roots across social mammalian species and their close relatives. MLA Source: Ben Ami Bartal, Inbal, Jean Decety, and Peggy Mason. “Empathy and Pro Social Behavior in Rats.” Science, vol. 334, no. 6061, 2011, pp. 1427 to 1430. > pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Want more interesting content like this ? Follow gravitonomy :) Via : Unknown No copyright infringement intended. Kindly DM for Credit/Removal/Collaboration :) #rats #empathy #evolution #science #psychology