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Nature Apr 2018Parenting is essential for the survival and wellbeing of mammalian offspring. However, we lack a circuit-level understanding of how distinct components of this behaviour...
Parenting is essential for the survival and wellbeing of mammalian offspring. However, we lack a circuit-level understanding of how distinct components of this behaviour are coordinated. Here we investigate how galanin-expressing neurons in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) of the hypothalamus coordinate motor, motivational, hormonal and social aspects of parenting in mice. These neurons integrate inputs from a large number of brain areas and the activation of these inputs depends on the animal's sex and reproductive state. Subsets of MPOA neurons form discrete pools that are defined by their projection sites. While the MPOA population is active during all episodes of parental behaviour, individual pools are tuned to characteristic aspects of parenting. Optogenetic manipulation of MPOA projections mirrors this specificity, affecting discrete parenting components. This functional organization, reminiscent of the control of motor sequences by pools of spinal cord neurons, provides a new model for how discrete elements of a social behaviour are generated at the circuit level.
Topics: Animals; Female; Galanin; Hormones; Logic; Male; Maternal Behavior; Mice; Motivation; Neural Pathways; Neurons; Optogenetics; Parenting; Paternal Behavior; Preoptic Area; Reproduction; Sex Characteristics; Social Behavior
PubMed: 29643503
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0027-0 -
Nature May 2014Mice display robust, stereotyped behaviours towards pups: virgin males typically attack pups, whereas virgin females and sexually experienced males and females display...
Mice display robust, stereotyped behaviours towards pups: virgin males typically attack pups, whereas virgin females and sexually experienced males and females display parental care. Here we show that virgin males genetically impaired in vomeronasal sensing do not attack pups and are parental. Furthermore, we uncover a subset of galanin-expressing neurons in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) that are specifically activated during male and female parenting, and a different subpopulation that is activated during mating. Genetic ablation of MPOA galanin neurons results in marked impairment of parental responses in males and females and affects male mating. Optogenetic activation of these neurons in virgin males suppresses inter-male and pup-directed aggression and induces pup grooming. Thus, MPOA galanin neurons emerge as an essential regulatory node of male and female parenting behaviour and other social responses. These results provide an entry point to a circuit-level dissection of parental behaviour and its modulation by social experience.
Topics: Aggression; Animals; Copulation; Female; Galanin; Grooming; Male; Maternal Behavior; Mice; Neurons; Optogenetics; Paternal Behavior; Pheromones; Preoptic Area; TRPC Cation Channels; Vomeronasal Organ
PubMed: 24828191
DOI: 10.1038/nature13307 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Aug 2023Mammalian infants depend on parental care for survival, with numerous consequences for their behavioral development. We investigated the epigenetic and...
Mammalian infants depend on parental care for survival, with numerous consequences for their behavioral development. We investigated the epigenetic and neurodevelopmental mechanisms mediating the impact of early biparental care on development of alloparenting behavior, or caring for offspring that are not one's own. We find that receiving high parental care early in life leads to slower epigenetic aging of both sexes and widespread male-specific differential expression of genes related to synaptic transmission and autism in the nucleus accumbens. Examination of parental care composition indicates that high-care fathers promote a male-specific increase in excitatory synapses and increases in pup retrieval behavior as juveniles. Interestingly, females raised by high-care fathers have the opposite behavioral response and display fewer pup retrievals. These results support the concept that neurodevelopmental trajectories are programmed by different features of early-life parental care and reveal that male neurodevelopmental processes are uniquely sensitive to care by fathers.
Topics: Humans; Female; Animals; Male; Fathers; Behavior, Animal; Maternal Behavior; Nucleus Accumbens; Parents; Paternal Behavior; Arvicolinae
PubMed: 37487074
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2308798120 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Jul 2018People vary in the degree to which they experience disgust toward-and, consequently, avoid-cues to pathogens. Prodigious work has measured this variation and observed... (Review)
Review
People vary in the degree to which they experience disgust toward-and, consequently, avoid-cues to pathogens. Prodigious work has measured this variation and observed that it relates to, among other things, personality, psychopathological tendencies, and moral and political sentiments. Less work has sought to generate hypotheses aimed at explaining why this variation exists in the first place, and even less work has evaluated how well data support these hypotheses. In this paper, we present and review the evidence supporting three such proposals. First, researchers have suggested that variability reflects a general tendency to experience anxiety or emotional distress. Second, researchers have suggested that variability arises from parental modelling, with offspring calibrating their pathogen avoidance based on their parents' reactions to pathogen cues. Third, researchers have suggested that individuals calibrate their disgust sensitivity to the parasite stress of the ecology in which they develop. We conclude that none of these hypotheses is supported by existing data, and we propose directions for future research aimed at better understanding this variation.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Evolution of pathogen and parasite avoidance behaviours'.
Topics: Anxiety; Cues; Disgust; Host-Parasite Interactions; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Humans; Maternal Behavior; Paternal Behavior
PubMed: 29866917
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0204 -
Developmental Psychobiology Jul 2021Infant protection is an important but largely neglected aspect of parental care. Available theory and research suggest that endocrine levels and neural responses might...
Infant protection is an important but largely neglected aspect of parental care. Available theory and research suggest that endocrine levels and neural responses might be biological correlates of protective behavior. However, no research to date examined associations between these neurobiological and behavioral aspects. This study, preregistered on https://osf.io/2acxd, explored the psychobiology of paternal protection in 77 new fathers by combining neural responses to infant-threatening situations, self-reported protective behavior, behavioral observations in a newly developed experimental set-up (Auditory Startling Task), and measurements of testosterone and vasopressin. fMRI analyses validated the role of several brain networks in the processing of infant-threatening situations and indicated replicable findings with the infant-threat paradigm. We found little overlap between observed and reported protective behavior. Robust associations between endocrine levels, neural responses, and paternal protective behavior were absent.
Topics: Brain; Fathers; Humans; Infant; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Paternal Behavior; Testosterone
PubMed: 33146413
DOI: 10.1002/dev.22055 -
Current Biology : CB Sep 2015Wahab et al. introduce the marmosets, a group of peculiar New World monkeys.
Wahab et al. introduce the marmosets, a group of peculiar New World monkeys.
Topics: Animal Distribution; Animals; Biological Evolution; Callitrichinae; Chimera; Feeding Behavior; Paternal Behavior; Reproduction; Sexual Behavior, Animal
PubMed: 26394094
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.06.042 -
Behavioral Neuroscience Jun 2017Multiple lines of research indicate that fathers often treat boys and girls differently in ways that impact child outcomes. The complex picture that has emerged,...
Multiple lines of research indicate that fathers often treat boys and girls differently in ways that impact child outcomes. The complex picture that has emerged, however, is obscured by methodological challenges inherent to the study of parental caregiving, and no studies to date have examined the possibility that gender differences in observed real-world paternal behavior are related to differential paternal brain responses to male and female children. Here we compare fathers of daughters and fathers of sons in terms of naturalistically observed everyday caregiving behavior and neural responses to child picture stimuli. Compared with fathers of sons, fathers of daughters were more attentively engaged with their daughters, sang more to their daughters, used more analytical language and language related to sadness and the body with their daughters, and had a stronger neural response to their daughter's happy facial expressions in areas of the brain important for reward and emotion regulation (medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex [OFC]). In contrast, fathers of sons engaged in more rough and tumble play (RTP), used more achievement language with their sons, and had a stronger neural response to their son's neutral facial expressions in the medial OFC (mOFC). Whereas the mOFC response to happy faces was negatively related to RTP, the mOFC response to neutral faces was positively related to RTP, specifically for fathers of boys. These results indicate that real-world paternal behavior and brain function differ as a function of child gender. (PsycINFO Database Record
Topics: Adult; Brain; Child, Preschool; Emotions; Facial Expression; Father-Child Relations; Female; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Infant; Language; Linear Models; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Oxygen; Paternal Behavior; Photic Stimulation; Sex Factors; Young Adult
PubMed: 28541079
DOI: 10.1037/bne0000199 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Apr 2022Fathers have an important and unique influence on child development, but influences on fathers' parenting have been vastly understudied in the scientific literature. In... (Review)
Review
Fathers have an important and unique influence on child development, but influences on fathers' parenting have been vastly understudied in the scientific literature. In particular, very little empirical research exists on the effects of early life adversity (ELA; e.g. childhood maltreatment, parental separation) on later parenting among fathers. In this review, we draw from both the human and non-human animal literature to examine the effects of ELA, specifically among males, in the following areas: 1) neurobiology and neurocognitive functioning, 2) hormones and hormone receptors, 3) gene-environment interactions and epigenetics, and 4) behavior and development. Based on these findings, we present a conceptual model to describe the biological and behavioral pathways through which exposure to ELA may influence parenting among males, with a goal of guiding future research and intervention development in this area. Empirical studies are needed to improve understanding of the relationship between ELA and father's parenting, inform the development of paternal and biparental interventions, and prevent intergenerational transmission of ELA.
Topics: Adverse Childhood Experiences; Biology; Fathers; Humans; Male; Parenting; Parents
PubMed: 35063493
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104531 -
Psychiatria Polska Dec 2020For many years there has been a debate among psychiatrists as to whether and how the patient's gender modifies the psychopathological picture of depression. Despite many... (Review)
Review
For many years there has been a debate among psychiatrists as to whether and how the patient's gender modifies the psychopathological picture of depression. Despite many years of research on trigger mechanisms, clinical features and the consequences of perinatal depression in women, one can still get the impression that too little is known about this mental disorder in the perinatal period in women. As for men, there are only few reports showing the consequences of paternal depression for the physical and emotional development of a newborn child. The article describes several cases of male patients who struggled with symptoms of depression in the perinatal period of their partners. In all stories one can find a cause-and-effect relationship between the episode of depression and the perinatal period. In spite of similar life circumstances and traits characteristic of depression in men, many differences in the course of the illness were also observed. Each of the patients required pharmacological treatment. Depending on the clinical and life situation, parallel psychotherapy was recommended, and in one case 24-hour hospitalization. In one of the men, an important trigger factor was the episode of postpartum depression in the partner. In the depressive state, all three men had to temporarily give up their care role in relation to their partner and then the child. Applied comprehensive treatment in all three fathers brought symptomatic and functional remission. Good mental health translated into a good adaptation to care for a little child and satisfaction as a father. The article presents perinatal depression in fathers as a real clinical problem that requires further in-depth research.
Topics: Adult; Depression; Father-Child Relations; Fathers; Humans; Male; Mental Health; Paternal Behavior; Peripartum Period
PubMed: 33740800
DOI: 10.12740/PP/110610 -
Scientific Reports Jul 2023In socially monogamous prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), parental behaviors not only occur in mothers and fathers, but also exist in some virgin males. In contrast,...
In socially monogamous prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), parental behaviors not only occur in mothers and fathers, but also exist in some virgin males. In contrast, the other virgin males display aggressive behaviors towards conspecific pups. However, little is known about the molecular underpinnings of this behavioral dichotomy, such as gene expression changes and their regulatory mechanisms. To address this, we profiled the transcriptome and DNA methylome of hippocampal dentate gyrus of four prairie vole groups, namely attacker virgin males, parental virgin males, fathers, and mothers. While we found a concordant gene expression pattern between parental virgin males and fathers, the attacker virgin males have a more deviated transcriptome. Moreover, numerous DNA methylation changes were found in pair-wise comparisons among the four groups. We found some DNA methylation changes overlapping with transcription differences, across gene-bodies and promoter regions. Furthermore, the gene expression changes and methylome alterations are selectively enriched in certain biological pathways, such as Wnt signaling, which suggest a canonical transcription regulatory role of DNA methylation in paternal behavior. Therefore, our study presents an integrated view of prairie vole dentate gyrus transcriptome and epigenome that provides a DNA epigenetic based molecular insight of paternal behavior.
Topics: Male; Animals; Paternal Behavior; DNA Methylation; Grassland; Hippocampus; Arvicolinae; Dentate Gyrus; Social Behavior
PubMed: 37419920
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-37521-2