哺乳动物合作行为的演化及其神经表征的数据

合作在自然界中很常见，对于人类社会的发展至关重要。然而，关于合作如何以及为什么进化的细节仍然不太清楚。跨物种对合作的研究可能有助于阐明合作策略的进化。因此，我们设计了一个自动化的合作行为范式，并对老鼠、大鼠和树鼩的合作能力和策略进行了定量研究。我们发现社交沟通在建立合作中起到了关键作用，随着被测试物种的进化层次的提高，合作能力增强和更高效的合作策略逐渐显现。此外，我们证明了大鼠的眶前额和初边皮层中的单个单位活动代表了神经信号，这些信号可能被用来区分合作和非合作任务，这些信号与奖励信号是不同的。这两种信号可能代表合作内部驱动的不同组成部分。

Cooperation is widespread in nature and critically important for the development of human society. However, the detailed mechanisms underlying how and why cooperation evolves remain largely unclear. Cross-species studies of cooperation may help elucidate the evolution of cooperative strategies. Therefore, we designed an automated cooperative behavioral paradigm and conducted a quantitative investigation of the cooperative abilities and strategies of mice, rats, and tree shrews. We found that social communication plays a critical role in establishing cooperation; as the evolutionary hierarchy of the tested species increases, enhanced cooperative abilities and more efficient cooperative strategies gradually emerge. Furthermore, we demonstrated that single-unit activity in the orbital prefrontal and prelimbic cortices of rats represents neural signals that can be used to distinguish cooperative and non-cooperative tasks, and these signals are distinct from reward-related signals. These two types of signals may represent distinct components of the internal drive for cooperation.