Dataset associated with: Alteration of empathy-related behaviors in two strains of mice expressing mutations of the α5 cholinergic nicotinic receptor subunit

Published: 12 July 2026| Version 2 | DOI: 10.17632/xssw5fd2mh.2
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Description

Human genetic association studies have linked a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the alpha5 subunit of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAchRs) to an increased risk of nicotine dependence, alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and schizophrenia. We used transgenic mice expressing either the SNP rs16969968 (termed α5SNP or α5KI) or a knockout of the Chrna5 gene (α5KO) to investigate the role of α5-containing nAchRs (α5*nAchRs) in emotion recognition and prosocial, rescuing-like behavioral tasks. We found that α5KO mice are impaired in the recognition of a negative affective state in a familiar peer, and displayed severely altered pro-social, altruistic behaviors, eventually assaulting peers in distress. In contrast, α5KI mice exhibited normal or improved emotion recognition and increased rescuing-like behavior. Importantly, effects of α5 mutations on emotion recognition were modulated by sex. These results demonstrate the critical implication of α5*nAchRs in emotion recognition and prosocial behaviors, revealing, sex-dependent patterns of these social emotional deficits in α5KI and α5KO mice which are reminiscent of the behavioral features of two characterized subtypes of AUD in humans

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Mouse, Social Behavior, Behavioral Assessment, Prosocial Behavior

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