Epigenetic mechanisms mediating the long-term effects of maternal care on development

Champagne, Frances A.; Curley, James P.

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2007.10.009

Cited by 399 publications

(265 citation statements)

References 126 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

255

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Taken together, these results demonstrate that social environments experienced during pre-weaning and postweaning influence neural development in a region-specific manner, and can interactively shape neural and behavioural phenotype. by classic and recent studies has shown that disruption of mother -infant interactions has consequences for the physiology and social behaviour of adult offspring [43][44][45][46]. Despite the significant advances that studies such as these have made, the majority of research performed has focused on maternal care and has overlooked the contribution of fathers on offspring development.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perinatal and juvenile social environments interact to shape cognitive behaviour and neural phenotype in prairie voles

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social environments experienced at different developmental stages profoundly shape adult behavioural and neural phenotypes, and may have important interactive effects. We asked if social experience before and after weaning influenced adult social cognition in male prairie voles. Animals were raised either with or without fathers and then either housed singly or in sibling pairs. Males that were socially deprived before (fatherless) and after (singly housed) weaning did not demonstrate social recognition or dissociate spatial from social information. We also examined oxytocin and vasopressin receptors (OTR and V1aR) in areas of the forebrain associated with social behaviour and memory. Pre-and post-wean experience differentially altered receptor expression in several structures. Of note, OTR in the lateral septum-an area in which oxytocin inhibits social recognition-was greatest in animals that did not clearly demonstrate social recognition. The combination of absentee fathers on V1aR in the retrosplenial cortex and single housing on OTR in the septohippocampal nucleus produced a unique phenotype previously found to be associated with poor reproductive success in nature. We demonstrate that interactive effects of early life experiences throughout development have tremendous influence over brain -behaviour phenotype and can buffer potentially negative outcomes due to social deprivation.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perinatal and juvenile social environments interact to shape cognitive behaviour and neural phenotype in prairie voles

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Data from a variety of species have indicated that maternal exposure to environmental and social stressors can have detrimental impacts on their offspring's health and behaviour [41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. From a functional perspective, then, cooperation-even independent of any benefit associated with enhanced competitive ability-is linked to fitness and health, especially for females.…”

Section: The Adaptive Value Of Social Bondsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptations for social cognition in the primate brain

Platt

Seyfarth

Cheney

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One contribution of 18 to a theme issue 'The evolution of cooperation based on direct fitness benefits'. Studies of the factors affecting reproductive success in group-living monkeys have traditionally focused on competitive traits, like the acquisition of high dominance rank. Recent research, however, indicates that the ability to form cooperative social bonds has an equally strong effect on fitness. Two implications follow. First, strong social bonds make individuals' fitness interdependent and the 'free-rider' problem disappears. Second, individuals must make adaptive choices that balance competition and cooperation-often with the same partners. The proximate mechanisms underlying these behaviours are only just beginning to be understood. Recent results from cognitive and systems neuroscience provide us some evidence that many social and nonsocial decisions are mediated ultimately by abstract, domain-general neural mechanisms. However, other populations of neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, amygdala and parietal cortex specifically encode the type, importance and value of social information. Whether these specialized populations of neurons arise by selection or through developmental plasticity in response to the challenges of social life remains unknown. Many brain areas are homologous and show similar patterns of activity in human and nonhuman primates. In both groups, cortical activity is modulated by hormones like oxytocin and by the action of certain genes that may affect individual differences in behaviour. Taken together, results suggest that differences in cooperation between the two groups are a matter of degree rather than constituting a fundamental, qualitative distinction.

show abstract

“…The amount of maternal care received by the developing pup influences hippocampal structure and function, affects molecular factors crucial for plasticity such as BDNF and NMDA receptors and leaves long-lasting epigenetic marks in the offspring's physiology and behaviour. [50][51][52][53] Very recently, a protocol of daily artificial tactile stimulation has been used in the rat as a strategy to promote visual system development. 54 The authors reported that a combination of gently stroking and massaging is highly effective in accelerating the maturation of physiological visual functions, in particular of VA ( Figure 2b).…”

Section: Maternal Care Tactile Stimulation and Visual System Developmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nurturing brain plasticity: impact of environmental enrichment

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Environmental enrichment (EE) is known to profoundly affect the central nervous system (CNS) at the functional, anatomical and molecular level, both during the critical period and during adulthood. Recent studies focusing on the visual system have shown that these effects are associated with the recruitment of previously unsuspected neural plasticity processes. At early stages of brain development, EE triggers a marked acceleration in the maturation of the visual system, with maternal behaviour acting as a fundamental mediator of the enriched experience in both the foetus and the newborn. In adult brain, EE enhances plasticity in the cerebral cortex, allowing the recovery of visual functions in amblyopic animals. The molecular substrate of the effects of EE on brain plasticity is multi-factorial, with reduced intracerebral inhibition, enhanced neurotrophin expression and epigenetic changes at the level of chromatin structure. These findings shed new light on the potential of EE as a non-invasive strategy to ameliorate deficits in the development of the CNS and to treat neurological disorders.

show abstract

Epigenetic mechanisms mediating the long-term effects of maternal care on development

Cited by 399 publications

References 126 publications

Perinatal and juvenile social environments interact to shape cognitive behaviour and neural phenotype in prairie voles

Perinatal and juvenile social environments interact to shape cognitive behaviour and neural phenotype in prairie voles

Adaptations for social cognition in the primate brain

Nurturing brain plasticity: impact of environmental enrichment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About