Succeeded in changing friends by inserting an optical fiber into the brain of a mouse!

Eight Electrodes in the Brain

It may come as a surprise, but mice are highly social creatures.

Mice, like humans, have a sense of camaraderie, and even recognize who they like and who they dislike, and change their behavior patterns significantly.

And while close individuals will actively huddle and help each other, they will try to keep their distance from strangers and dislikes.

However, it is not yet known in detail what kind of brain activity causes sociality in animals.

In this study, researchers at Duke University inserted electrodes into eight locations in the brains of mice to record detailed brain activity during communication.

By analyzing the data using AI, we discovered brain circuits (communication circuits) that generate social motivation in mice, and neural activity patterns (codes) when social and friendly attitudes appear. Did.

The presence of this communication circuit is ubiquitous in all healthy mice, and in general, the higher the activity, the higher the sociality.

In addition, the activity of the circuit also affected the favorability between mice.

The friendships predicted by the researchers based on circuit activity were consistent with the actual friendships.

The code was also highly reproducible, allowing researchers to determine when the mice's social behaviors began and ended (eg, greetings and playful periods) just by reading the code. .

This result indicates that the sociability and friendliness of mice are determined by specific brain circuits (communication circuits) and specific neural activity patterns (codes).

If this "communication circuit" is forcibly activated, what will happen to the mouse?