Will This Study Make You Feel Empathetic Towards Mice?

 As we have studied in class, studies have been conducted to test empathy in dogs and rats. Since the topic of empathy has been expanding in the animal psychology world, many other species have been tested such as chickens, elephants, chimpanzees, and orangutans. Mice have recently been tested by psychology professor Dr. Jeffery Mogil at McGill University to determine whether or not pain stimulus causes an empathetic reaction. This study was highly controversial and questioned the ethical components of experiments.

This experiment actually came out of an accidental discovery of a pattern concerning a mouse's pain sensitivity to a pain test that was dependent on whether or not the mouse observed another mouse in the test. Sometimes, both mice who were cagemates were subject to the pain test at the same time. This prompted Dr. Mogil and colleagues to explore this behavior in mice by either injecting one mouse with acetic acid (found in vinegar) while the other one watches or inject both. If one was injected while the other watched, the non-injected mouse would show a lower pain tolerance. When both were injected, one would writhe in pain more than the other. Dr. Mogil stated that "these findings suggest that mice experience a general increased sensitivity to pain, and don't simply imitate what they see."

Dr. Mogil and colleagues next decided to block out some of the mice's senses to observe if this made a considerable difference in empathetic responses. What was discovered resulted in visual cues that determine the empathetic response (like observing their cagemate in pain versus not). Dr. Mogil claims that this is a result of emotional contagion, like a yawn.

Response to this study was widely criticized and praised. Dr. Jaak Panksepp believes the empathetic effect in mice is the same in human brain activity, stating that if that is true "then the evidence would be truly compelling that their model actually reflects evolutionary continuity in pro-social mechanism among many different mammalian species."

Do you believe that these claims by Dr. Mogil and Dr. Panksepp could be true? Is it necessary to cause animals moderate pain in order to reach a conclusion to a theory?


References:
-Empathy in mice. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from https://onekindplanet.org/animal-behaviour/empathy/empathy-in-mice/
-Chen, Q., Panksepp, J. B., & Lahvis, G. P. (2009). Empathy Is Moderated by Genetic Background in Mice. PLoS ONE, 4(2). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004387