Mice can resuscitate unconscious "relatives": scientists showed the actions of rodents (3 photos + 1 video)

In 80% of cases, a laboratory mouse pulled a foreign object out of the mouth of an unconscious comrade, Californian scientists reported.





Scientists from the University of Southern California studied the lives of rodents and found that they can bring unconscious "comrades" back to life. The researchers recorded various methods of "mouse" resuscitation on video. One of the methods that the animals use is pulling out the tongue.



The article talks about research on laboratory mice, which was conducted by seven scientists of Chinese origin from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. They noticed special manifestations of care between rodents that spent a certain amount of time together and who can be considered conditional "comrades". To do this, one animal was given anesthesia and they watched how the other would behave. The scientists saw a whole range of resuscitation measures that were supposed to bring the unconscious creature back to life. In this case, they really managed to bring the "comrade" back to life and even removed foreign objects from the respiratory tract, the scientists noted.

What resuscitation or care measures did the mice show:

sniffing and inspection;

pushing;

biting the partner's mouth or tongue;

pulling the tongue;

pulling foreign objects out of the mouth, if there are any.



The scientists also noticed that there was a relationship between the activity of resuscitation and how long the mice had been "acquainted". In addition, it turned out that "artificial respiration" was performed on an unconscious animal, but not a dead one. The rescue actions ended when the patient came to and began to move, the article says. In one of the experiments, interaction with an unconscious partner lasted about 13 minutes, with more than 47% of the time spent sniffing and pushing, and almost 6% of the time spent on active actions - biting and pulling out the tongue. In half of the cases, the rodents successfully removed the tongue and prevented "obstruction of the airways", and in 80% - they removed the foreign object.

The work of the brain and other organs of the experimental mice was checked. Studies have shown that at the moment of assistance, their levels of the hormone oxytocin, which was released by special neurons, rose. The hormone affected the amygdala and hypothalamus, which triggered activity. Thus, another way of interaction between social animals was discovered, which probably helps group survival, scientists from the University of Southern California concluded.