OSCR

Individual differences in prosocial learning are represented in the hippocampal dorsal CA1.

Overview

Authors: Filippo La Greca1, Elisa Zianni1, Ilaria Cerchiaro1, Michela Gusmini1, Giulia Coccia1, Alexandre Carrea1, Silvia Pelucchi1, Carlo Castoldi2,3,4, Davide Maggioni1, Elena Marcello1, Bianca Ambrogina Silva2,3,4, Fabrizio Gardoni1, Monica DiLuca1, Diego Scheggia1
ORCID iDs: Carlo Castoldi, Elena Marcello, Fabrizio Gardoni, Diego Scheggia
  1. Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences “Rodolfo Paoletti”, University of Milan,Milan, Italy
  2. Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS UMR7275, INSERM U1318, Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire,Valbonne, France
  3. Institute of Neuroscience, National Research Council of Italy,Milan, Italy
  4. Lab of Circuits Neuroscience, IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital,Milan, Italy
Institutions: University of Milan (Italy); Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (France); National Research Council (Italy); IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital (Italy)
Journal: Nature neuroscience, volume 29, issue 7, pages 1667-1679
Dates: received 8 August 2024; accepted 3 April 2026; published online 12 May 2026; in print 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1038/s41593-026-02292-2 · PMID 42120608 · PMCID PMC13337505 · OpenAlex W7160887519
Open access: hybrid, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: code on request
Categories: mouse (organism), systems (subfield)
Methods: Statistics, Smoothing, state filtering, decompositions, Machine learning, Connectivity, Preprocessing, fMRI & imaging, Single-unit activity, calcium imaging
Keywords: Social behaviour, Neural circuits
MeSH: CA1 Region, Hippocampal*, Individuality*, Learning*, Social Behavior*, Animals, Male, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Optogenetics (* major topic)
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms (Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: Fondazione CARIPLO (2019-1747, 2020-3632); Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca (Progetto Eccellenza 2023–2027), PSR2025_DSCHE, PSR2023_DSCHE, PSR2022_DIP_022_AZIONE_A_DSCHE, PRIN2022 PNRR P2022TKN8C, FIS00000560); European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the MSCA Doctoral Networks 2021 (101072759, fuel the brain in healthy ageing and age-related diseases (ETERNITY)); Alzheimer’s Association (AARG-22-974392); EC | EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation H2020 | H2020 Priority Excellent Science | H2020 European Research Council (H2020 Excellent Science - European Research Council) (ERC-2021-STG 101042309); Université Côte d’Azur installation grant Airalzh (AGYR2021); Funder: NextGenerationEU (PNRR, Missione 4 – Componente 2– Investimento 1.3, finanziato dall’Unione europea) / Reference “Fascination”; Giovanni Armenise-Harvard Foundation and Airalzh ONLUS (2023 Armenise Harvard-AIRALZH Mid-Career Award in Neurodegenerative Diseases - AHA MCA -)
Citations: cited by 1 paper (Europe PMC); 48 references in the paper
Research resources: RRID:IMSR_JAX:030323

Abstract

Animals can learn about danger by observing conspecifics, but whether and how they acquire behaviors through positive affective states of others is not understood. Here we show that by observing a demonstrator, mice learn to take actions that benefit others and that are goal-directed and flexible. Chemogenetic silencing experiments showed that activity in hippocampal dorsal CA1 (dCA1) was required for observers to learn action–outcome associations in a social context. Fiber photometry recordings revealed inter-individual differences in dCA1 activity patterns during observation that tracked the observer’s subsequent prosocial or selfish behavioral propensities. Optogenetic manipulations demonstrated that the dCA1 is key during observation and can orient a mouse’s actions toward prosocial or selfish choices in future interactions. Our study provides a mouse model of social transmission of knowledge that guides prosocial behavior and that may be relevant for studying disorders in which the ability to learn from others’ actions is compromised.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper says that its authors' code is available on request: it was not published with the paper, so there is nothing to verify.

Code availability

Custom-written analysis code is available upon request and it will be released in a separate publication.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none (its code is available on request), so it has no map.

Data

Datasets cited

Data availability

All source data used to generate the figures are available at 10.6084/m9.figshare.31443760 (ref. 48).

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 2, 28 September 2026

  • Publisher: n/a → Nature Portfolio

Version 1, 28 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 14 authors, 2 keywords, 9 MeSH terms, 8 funders, 47 references, 1 RRID.

Cite

This paper

La Greca, F., Zianni, E., Cerchiaro, I., Gusmini, M., Coccia, G., Carrea, A., Pelucchi, S., Castoldi, C., Maggioni, D., Marcello, E., Silva, B. A., Gardoni, F., DiLuca, M., & Scheggia, D. (2026). Individual differences in prosocial learning are represented in the hippocampal dorsal CA1. Nature neuroscience, 29(7), 1667-1679. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02292-2

BibTeX

@article{lagreca2026individual,
author = {La Greca, Filippo and Zianni, Elisa and Cerchiaro, Ilaria and Gusmini, Michela and Coccia, Giulia and Carrea, Alexandre and Pelucchi, Silvia and Castoldi, Carlo and Maggioni, Davide and Marcello, Elena and Silva, Bianca Ambrogina and Gardoni, Fabrizio and DiLuca, Monica and Scheggia, Diego},
title = {{Individual differences in prosocial learning are represented in the hippocampal dorsal CA1}},
journal = {Nature neuroscience},
year = {2026},
month = may,
volume = {29},
number = {7},
pages = {1667--1679},
publisher = {Nature Portfolio},
issn = {1097-6256},
doi = {10.1038/s41593-026-02292-2},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02292-2},
pmid = {42120608},
pmcid = {PMC13337505}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - La Greca, Filippo
AU - Zianni, Elisa
AU - Cerchiaro, Ilaria
AU - Gusmini, Michela
AU - Coccia, Giulia
AU - Carrea, Alexandre
AU - Pelucchi, Silvia
AU - Castoldi, Carlo
AU - Maggioni, Davide
AU - Marcello, Elena
AU - Silva, Bianca Ambrogina
AU - Gardoni, Fabrizio
AU - DiLuca, Monica
AU - Scheggia, Diego
TI - Individual differences in prosocial learning are represented in the hippocampal dorsal CA1
T2 - Nature neuroscience
J2 - Nat Neurosci
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/05/12
VL - 29
IS - 7
SP - 1667
EP - 1679
SN - 1097-6256
PB - Nature Portfolio
DO - 10.1038/s41593-026-02292-2
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02292-2
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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