TY - JOUR
T1 - Endogenous opioids
T2 - A proximate reward mechanism for kin selection?
AU - D'amato, Francesca R.
AU - Pavone, Flaminia
PY - 1993
Y1 - 1993
N2 - The kin selection theory predicts that individuals would behave differently toward one another, depending on their genetic relatedness. Proximate mechanisms have been postulated to exist helping the individual to discriminate what is good or bad for him. Opioids have been discovered to be involved in the mediation of reinforcement, in particular they underlay social emotion. In this study it is shown that pain sensitivity decreased in male mice interacting with siblings following 2 months of separation; this analgesic response was antagonized by naloxone administration. Interaction with unknown and unrelated subjects did not change the nociceptive threshold. These results suggest that interacting with kin is an adaptive situation reinforced, at the neural level, by the release of endogenous opioids.
AB - The kin selection theory predicts that individuals would behave differently toward one another, depending on their genetic relatedness. Proximate mechanisms have been postulated to exist helping the individual to discriminate what is good or bad for him. Opioids have been discovered to be involved in the mediation of reinforcement, in particular they underlay social emotion. In this study it is shown that pain sensitivity decreased in male mice interacting with siblings following 2 months of separation; this analgesic response was antagonized by naloxone administration. Interaction with unknown and unrelated subjects did not change the nociceptive threshold. These results suggest that interacting with kin is an adaptive situation reinforced, at the neural level, by the release of endogenous opioids.
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U2 - 10.1016/0163-1047(93)90768-D
DO - 10.1016/0163-1047(93)90768-D
M3 - Article
C2 - 8216163
AN - SCOPUS:0027219082
VL - 60
SP - 79
EP - 83
JO - Behavioral and Neural Biology
JF - Behavioral and Neural Biology
SN - 0163-1047
IS - 1
ER -