Past experiences strongly affect empathy in mice

For social animals like humans, it's critical to be able to recognize and react to the emotional state of others. One particularly important aspect of this ability is empathy--which, in this context, refers specifically to understanding when another person is in emotional distress. However, individuals can respond in very different ways to seeing someone in such distress. These responses fall into two broad categories. There are prosocial responses: reaching out to the person in distress to provide care and comfort.