Effects of REM sleep restriction during pregnancy on rodent maternal behavior

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effects of sleep restriction during pregnancy on maternal care and maternal aggression in a rodent model. Methods: Twenty-three female Wistar rats were assigned to one of two groups: control (n=12) or sleep restriction (n=11) during the entire pregnancy. At the fifth postpartum day, the animals were subjected to the resident-intruder paradigm and to the pup retrieval test. Results: Sleep restriction during pregnancy had no direct effects on maternal care. Regarding aggressive behavior, defensive aggression was increased by sleep loss, with a lower responsiveness threshold to hostile environmental stimuli. Sleep deprivation during gestation also reduced selfgrooming behavior. Conclusion: Taking increased self-grooming as a behavioral correlate of anxiety in rodents, this study provides evidence that lactating dams were in a condition of reduced anxiety. From an adaptive perspective, this pattern of stress response may function to ensure proper maternal behavior, thereby guaranteeing the survival and viability of the litter. Under a translational perspective, the present article confronts the importance of biological and adaptive features to rodent maternal behavior with the relevance of sociocultural factors to the human mother-infant relationship and to the onset of postpartum depression.

Sleep deprivation impairs recognition of specific emotions

“…These findings suggest that sleep deprivation lowers the threshold of interoceptive sensitivity of brain homeostatic systems, enhancing the threat-response system and affecting the interpretation of pro-social and antisocial cues (Goldstein-Piekarski et al, 2015, Simon et al, 2015). Findings from the animal literature are also supportive of this model, suggesting that deprivation of rapid eye movement sleep in pregnant rats increases defensive aggression and reduces the threshold for responding to potentially hostile stimuli (Pires et al, 2015). Overall, our findings are consistent with these data in animals and humans, suggesting that the accuracy of detecting facial displays that communicate clear and present danger may be more robust against sleep deprivation than those involved in detecting social and affiliative emotions.…”

Effects of experimental sleep deprivation on anxiety-like behavior in animal research: Systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Indeed, some articles have already evaluated grooming following sleep deprivation (Andersen et al, 2005;Nunes et al, 2012;Pires et al, 2012a;Pires et al, 2013Pires et al, , 2015a. In respect of the methods currently available to evaluate grooming behavior, one could think of three possible alternatives: the classical evaluation by latency, frequency and duration of this behavior (Andersen et al, 2005); the use of self-cleaning indexes (Nunes et al, 2012) and the use of the grooming analysis algorithm Tuohimaa, 2004, 2005a, b).…”

Maternal behavior of the mouse dam toward pups: implications for maternal separation model of early life stress

“…Maternal care is crucial for the adequate development of the pups and this type of behavior can be classified as any action taken by the mother in order to nourish, soothe and protect the pups (Kristal, 2009;Pires, Tufik, & Andersen, 2015). In addition to provide nutrition and safety, it is essential to ensure the necessary stimuli for development (Caldji et al, 1998;Meaney, 2001), since it was already been observed that variations in the maternal behavior (MB) can modulate the neuroendocrine and psychological development, as well as the responses to stress (Francis, Diorio, Liu, & Meaney, 1999;Nephew & Murgatroyd, 2013;Weaver et al, 2004).…”

“…The behaviors N, L, C and R were categorized as maternal behaviors because they impact directly on the pup, and can provide physical and emotional care (Pires et al, 2015). Furthermore, no interaction with the pups (X) and eating/drinking (E) were considered as behaviors not related with maternal care.…”