Mice instinctively act as first responders when they encounter unconscious companions, focusing intense grooming efforts on their peers' heads to help revive them, according to new research from UCLA scientists.
The study, published in Science, reveals that mice can detect when their fellow rodents are unresponsive and spring into action with targeted helping behaviors. The mice don't just randomly interact with their sedated companions – they deliberately concentrate their attention on the face and mouth areas, similar to how human paramedics might check an unconscious person's airway.
When encountering an unresponsive mouse, they focused on head-directed grooming, while stressed mice received more body-focused grooming. The behavior works even in complete darkness, suggesting mice rely on multiple sensory cues beyond vision to detect and respond to an unconscious companion. Using advanced imaging techniques, they identified a specific region of the mouse brain – the medial amygdala (MeA) – that controls this helping response.
Most surprisingly, the mice's emergency response efforts appeared to work. As reported in Science, their head-directed grooming led to "increased motor responses in sedated recipients, including tail twitching and expedited recovery from the unresponsive state."
Previously:
• MouseGoggles are tiny VR headset for mice
• Scientists create mice with two fathers
• Photo of mice brawling on a subway platform wins wildlife photography award
• Scientists make temporarily transparent mice
• Tiny EMTs: mice innately try to revive passed out pals
• Man puts more than 600 pet mice up for adoption at SPCA
• NASA fed moonrocks to cockroaches and injected moon dust into mice
• Man builds a fairytale-esque cottage for garden mice (video)
