Ben Rein, Kendall Raymond, Cali Boustani, Sabrena Tuy, Jie Zhang, Robyn St Laurent, Matthew B Pomrenze, Parnaz Boroon, Boris Heifets, Monique Smith, Robert C Malenka
MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) is a psychoactive drug with powerful prosocial effects. While MDMA is sometimes termed an "empathogen," empirical studies have struggled to clearly demonstrate these effects or pinpoint underlying mechanisms. Here, we paired the social transfer of pain and analgesia-behavioral tests modeling empathy in mice-with region-specific neuropharmacology, optogenetics, and transgenic manipulations to explore MDMA's action as an empathogen. We report that MDMA, given intraperitoneally or infused directly into the nucleus accumbens (NAc), robustly enhances the social transfer of pain and analgesia...
April 26, 2024: Science Advances