Juvenile Rats Show Reduced C-fos Activity in Neural Sites Associated with Aversion to Pups and Inhibition of Maternal Behavior

Overview

Journal Behav Neurosci

Publisher American Psychological Association

Specialty Psychology

Date 2005 Sep 29

PMID 16187837

Citations 4

Authors

D E Olazabal

J I Morrell

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Juvenile rats (18-23 days old) interact avidly with pups as novel stimuli and show maternal behavior after only 1-3 days of pup exposure; adults initially avoid pups and require 3-9 days of pup exposure. Upon exposure to pups as novel stimuli, adults had more c-Fos-immunoreactive neurons in the hypothalamus and amygdala--regions associated with aversion to pups--than adults exposed to familiar pup stimuli (maternal) or not exposed to pups (p < .05). In juvenile rats exposed to pups as novel stimuli, only the medial amygdala had a small significant increase of c-Fos neurons. In juveniles, this blunted engagement of c-Fos neurons may reflect the diminished activation of inhibitory neurons, facilitating the interaction of juveniles with pups as novel stimuli and onset of maternal behavior.

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