Empathy is crucial for our emotional experience and social interactions, and its abnormalities manifest in various psychiatric disorders. Observational fear is a useful behavioral paradigm for assessing affective empathy in rodents. However, specific genes that regulate observational fear remain unknown. Here we showed that 129S1/SvImJ mice carrying a unique missense variant in neurexin 3 (Nrxn3) exhibited a profound and selective enhancement in observational fear. Using the CRISPR/Cas9 system, the arginine-to-tryptophan (R498W) change in Nrxn3 was confirmed to be the causative variant. Selective deletion of Nrxn3 in somatostatin-expressing (SST+) interneurons in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) markedly increased observational fear and impaired inhibitory synaptic transmission from SST+ neurons. Concordantly, optogenetic manipulation revealed that SST+ neurons in the ACC bidirectionally controlled the degree of socially transmitted fear. Together, these results provide insights into the genetic basis of behavioral variability and the neurophysiological mechanism controlling empathy in mammalian brains.

NMDA receptor (NMDAR) and GABA neuronal dysfunctions are observed in animal models of autism spectrum disorders, but how these dysfunctions impair social cognition and behavior remains unclear. We report here that NMDARs in cortical parvalbumin (Pv)-positive interneurons cooperate with gap junctions to promote high-frequency (>80 Hz) Pv neuronal burst firing and social cognition. Shank2–/– mice, displaying improved sociability upon NMDAR activation, show impaired cortical social representation and inhibitory neuronal burst firing. Cortical Shank2–/– Pv neurons show decreased NMDAR activity, which suppresses the cooperation between NMDARs and gap junctions (GJs) for normal burst firing. Shank2–/– Pv neurons show compensatory increases in GJ activity that are not sufficient for social rescue. However, optogenetic boosting of Pv neuronal bursts, requiring GJs, rescues cortical social cognition in Shank2–/– mice, similar to the NMDAR-dependent social rescue. Therefore, NMDARs and gap junctions cooperate to promote cortical Pv neuronal bursts and social cognition.

Long‐term memory formation is attributed to experience‐dependent gene expression. Dynamic changes in histone methylation are essential for the epigenetic regulation of memory consolidation‐related genes. Here, we demonstrate that the plant homeodomain finger protein 2 (PHF2) histone demethylase is upregulated in the mouse hippocampus during the experience phase and plays an essential role in memory formation. PHF2 promotes the expression of memory‐related genes by epigenetically reinforcing the TrkB–CREB signaling pathway. In behavioral tests, memory formation is enhanced by transgenic overexpression of PHF2 in mice, but is impaired by silencing PHF2 in the hippocampus. Electrophysiological studies reveal that PHF2 elevates field excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSP) and NMDA receptor‐mediated evoked excitatory postsynaptic current (EPSC) in CA1 pyramidal neurons, suggesting that PHF2 promotes long‐term potentiation. This study provides insight into the epigenetic regulation of learning and memory formation, which advances our knowledge to improve memory in patients with degenerative brain diseases.