Our own experience of emotional events influences how we approach and react to others’ emotions. Here we observe that mice exhibit divergent interindividual responses to others in stress (that is, preference or avoidance) only if they have previously experienced the same aversive event. These responses are estrus dependent in females and dominance dependent in males. Notably, silencing the expression of the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) within the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) attenuates the impact of stress self-experience on the reaction to others’ stress. In vivo microendoscopic calcium imaging revealed that mPFC CRF neurons are activated more toward others’ stress only following the same negative self-experience. Optogenetic manipulations confirmed that higher activation of mPFC CRF neurons is responsible for the switch from preference to avoidance of others in stress, but only following stress self-experience. These results provide a neurobiological substrate underlying how an individual’s emotional experience influences their approach toward others in a negative emotional state.

我们自己对情绪事件的经历会影响我们接近和回应他人情绪的方式。在这里，我们观察到，只有当小鼠之前经历过相同的厌恶事件时，它们才会对压力下的其他人（即偏好或回避）表现出不同的个体间反应。这些反应在雌性中依赖于发情，在雄性中依赖于优势。值得注意的是，沉默内侧前额叶皮层 （mPFC） 内促肾上腺皮质激素释放因子 （CRF） 的表达会减弱压力自我体验对他人压力反应的影响。体内显微内窥镜钙成像显示，只有在相同的负面自我体验之后，mPFC CRF 神经元才会对他人的压力更多地被激活。光遗传学操作证实，mPFC CRF 神经元的较高激活是导致在压力中从偏好转变为回避他人的原因，但仅限于压力自我体验。这些结果为个人的情绪经历如何影响他们在消极情绪状态下对待他人的方式提供了神经生物学基础。