M. Kavaliers et al., Learning from others to cope with biting flies: Social learning of fear-induced conditioned analgesia and active avoidance, BEHAV NEURO, 115(3), 2001, pp. 661-674
Although fear conditioning has received extensive attention, little is know
n about the roles of social learning whereby an individual may learn and ac
quire the fear responses of another. The authors examined individually and
socially mediated acquisition of fear and analgesia to the natural aversive
stimulus of biting flies. Exposure to biting flies elicited in individual
naive mice analgesia and active self-burying to avoid the flies. When expos
ed 24 hr later to flies whose biting parts were removed, but not to nonbiti
ng house flies, these mice displayed conditioned analgesia and self-burying
. This "one-trial" conditioned analgesia and avoidance was also acquired th
rough social learning without direct individual experience with biting flie
s. Naive "observer" mice that witnessed other "demonstrator" mice being att
acked by biting flies exhibited analgesia and self-burying 24 hr later to a
ltered flies.