Ricerc@Sapienza

The present research explored the relation between socio-cognitive skills, as Theory of Mind and affective empathy, social behaviour, attachment style and scholastic success in children, aged from 8 to 11 years (N = 159; 90 females, 69 males; Mage = 9,60; DS = .78). Several assessment tools were administered to children on mentalizing abilities (Stories), empathy (FASTE), language (PPVT-R), attachment style (SAT) and learning (M.T. and AC-MT 6-11), while the teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire about every child’s social behaviour (SDQ).

Emotion recognition represents the ability to encode an ensemble of sensory stimuli providing information about the emotional state of another individual. This ability is not unique to humans. An increasing number of studies suggest that many aspects of higher order social functions, including emotion recognition, might be present in species ranging from primates to rodents, indicating a conserved role in social animals.

Recognition of other’s emotions influences the way social animals interact and adapt to the environment. The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) has been implicated in different aspects of emotion processing. However, the role of endogenous OXT brain pathways in the social response to different emotional states in conspecifics remains elusive. Here, using a combination of anatomical, genetic, and chemogenetic approaches, we investigated the contribution of endogenous OXT signaling in the ability of mice to discriminate unfamiliar conspecifics based on their emotional states.