Rodents to the rescue and our internal OXYCONTIN !

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Mice and humans both have a knack for first aid, but the rodent version of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation involves a lot more biting and tongue-pulling. Sun et al./Science (Feb 22, 2025)

In a new Science study, researchers report that rodents increased the time they spent sniffing and grooming a peer when the mouse was drugged into unconsciousness.

As the drugged animal became more and more unresponsive, the “bystander” turned to more... aggressive first aid tactics. “They start with sniffing, and then grooming, and then with a very intensive or physical interaction ,” study co-author Li Zhang tells New Scientist. “They really open the mouth of this animal and pull out its tongue.”

The team found that this intense form of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation actually helped enlarge the animal’s airway, allowing it to recover faster.

The study authors traced these behaviors to a part of the brain called the paraventricular nucleus, where neurons produce oxycontin—a hormone that promotes empathy-like behavior in rodents.

The authors of a second Science study, however, found similar results when they examined the medial amygdala, which plays a role in a variety of innate social behaviors.

“These findings add to the evidence that an impulse to help others in states of extreme distress is shared by many species and highlight neural mechanisms that drive instinctive rescue,” neuroscientists William Sheeran and Zoe Donaldson write in a related Science Perspective.