Mouse to make mouth-to-mouth breath to another mouse
Rats are excellent to provide “first aid”. In a new study they were taken to revive companions, anesthetized, caressing and biting them, and even pull their tongue to the side to clear the airways.
Someone spoke of basic life support (SBV)? Os Rats are experts. When they find another unconscious rat, they try to revive him, giving him dicks, biting him and pulling his tongue to the side to clear the airways.
This discovery was revealed in a study this Friday in Science; which suggests that care behavior may be more common in the animal kingdom than it was thought.
There are rare reports of large social mammals who try to help unable to their kind. To the rule flee, for example: chimpanzees savages that touch and lick their injured pairs; you dolphin who try to push a companion in hardship to the surface so that they can breathe; and the elephants who provide assistance to sick relatives.
Now, researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) filmed what was happening when the laboratory mice had a family cagem that was active or anesthetized and without reaction.
During the tests, on average, the animals dedicated about 47% of a 13 -minute observation window to interact with their unconscious partner.
“They start by smelling, then clean the body and finally have a very intense or physical interaction. They even open the animal’s mouth and pull their tongue, ”explained the leader of the investigation Li Zhangto. These most physical interactions also involved licking their eyes and biting the area of the mouth.
In another test, the investigators gently put a non -toxic plastic ball in the mouth of the unconscious mouse. In 80% of cases, the assistant rats were able to remove the object.
Another finding was that the rats providing care also passed more time to take care of unconscious rats if they were familiar with them than if they did not know each other earlier.
The team found that the behaviors were induced by Oxytocin liberating neurons in the regions of the amygdala and the hypothalamus of the brain. Oxytocin hormone is involved in other care behaviors in a wide variety of vertebrate species.
The investigators theorize that behavior is innate and not learnedin part because All animals tested were only 2 to 3 months old And they had never seen this behavior or anesthetized cagemates before.
