Cortical representations of affective pain shape empathic fear in male mice

Jiye Choi, Young-Beom Lee, Dahm So, Jee Yeon Kim, Sungjoon Choi, Sowon Kim and Sehoon Keum ()
Additional contact information
Jiye Choi: Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
Young-Beom Lee: Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
Dahm So: Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
Jee Yeon Kim: Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
Sungjoon Choi: Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
Sowon Kim: Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
Sehoon Keum: Institute for Basic Science (IBS)

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Affect sharing, the ability to vicariously feel others’ emotions, constitutes the primary component of empathy. However, the neural basis for encoding others’ distress and representing shared affective experiences remains poorly understood. Here, using miniature endoscopic calcium imaging, we identify distinct and dynamic neural ensembles in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) that encode observational fear across both excitatory and inhibitory neurons in male mice. Notably, we discover that the population dynamics encoding vicarious freezing information are conserved in ACC pyramidal neurons and are specifically represented by affective, rather than sensory, responses to direct pain experience. Furthermore, using circuit-specific imaging and optogenetic manipulations, we demonstrate that distinct populations of ACC neurons projecting to the periaqueductal gray (PAG), but not to the basolateral amygdala (BLA), selectively convey affective pain information and regulate observational fear. Taken together, our findings highlight the critical role of ACC neural representations in shaping empathic freezing through the encoding of affective pain.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-57230-w Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-57230-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57230-w

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().