AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The instinct to help a fellow creature runs deep. We see the behavior in humans, elephants and now mice. A new study published in the journal Science outlines what it calls prosocial behavior in mice who seem to be performing CPR on incapacitated mice. Li Zhang is a professor of physiology and neuroscience at USC's Keck School of Medicine and is one of the co-authors of that study, and he joins us now. Welcome to the program.
LI ZHANG: Yeah, thank you for having me here.
RASCOE: So let's talk about the study. You and your colleagues temporarily knocked out mice with some medication or blocked their airways with a non-toxic ball. You noticed that the mice that were awake would try to help the unconscious mice?
ZHANG: Yeah, at the beginning, it's really a surprise for us, I mean, because nobody reported this kind of behavior in laboratory animals. In the literature, it seems that it's not reported before or it's not studied before how animal interact with an unconscious partner.
RASCOE: You say performing CPR. Were they, like, pushing on them with their little paws or how was it going?
ZHANG: The behaviors include several things, like starting from sleeping and then grooming, and then more intensive interactions, like biting the mouse, biting the tongue and a strong licking of the eye. And eventually pulling the tongue out of the mouth of this unconscious one.
RASCOE: They would pull the tongue out to clear their airway for the unconscious animal?
ZHANG: Yes, so that's our guess.
RASCOE: Wow. I mean, that seems really advanced for mice to know how to do that. And the helper mice who were doing this, they were very young, like 2 to 3 months old. So is it just instinct - is it - or is this learned behavior?
ZHANG: Generally, like, two, three months for mice is considered as young adults. And then even at least for age up to, like, 6 months or so they all show this kind of behavior. But those animals, they don't have this kind of prior experience with the unconscious one before. So that's why we think, OK, this is more likely innate.
RASCOE: It's not them learning it from the older mice. This is something innate.
ZHANG: Right.
RASCOE: Did these mice have to, like, know each other? Like, have dealings with the incapacitated mouse before, or did they help even strangers?
ZHANG: So turns out - OK? - the behavior, the responses to caged mice for a long time, they show very strong responses. But if it's for a stranger - they've never been together before - then it's much less.
RASCOE: So how can understanding the interior life of mice and animals help with broader medicine?
ZHANG: Animal study, I mean, the purpose is more to understand a human being. This kind of behavior and also the study of its neural mechanisms - right? - may also generate some insights to understand - OK? - some neurological disorders - autistic patients or, you know, Alzheimer's disease patients. So if we understand the neuro mechanisms from animal model, maybe that's also help us - OK? - to understand what's going on to generate some therapeutic strategies, right?
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RASCOE: That's Li Zhang, professor of physiology and neuroscience at USC's Keck School of Medicine. Thank you so much for speaking with us today.
ZHANG: Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me.
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