Mother rats bar-press for pups: effects of lesions of the mpoa and limbic sites on maternal behavior and operant responding for pup-reinforcement

Lee, Anna; Clancy, Sharon; Fleming, Alison S.

doi:10.1016/s0166-4328(98)00109-0

Cited by 208 publications

(215 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

205

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Pups are a critical and salient biological stimulus present exclusively in the postpartum females' environment. The postpartum female is uniquely and highly responsive to pups: she vigorously performs maternal caregiving behaviors toward her pups across the postpartum period and attributes considerable incentive salience to pups during early postpartum (Wilsoncroft 1969;Lee et al 2000;Mattson et al 2001). Pup-directed maternal behaviors substantially increase dopaminergic activity in the nucleus accumbens (Hansen et al 1993;Champagne et al 2004), a mesolimbic region closely tied to motivational processing, goal-directed behaviors (Berridge and Robinson 1998;Ikemoto and Panksepp 1999;Salamone and Correa 2002), and, recently, cocaine-associated chamber preference (Mattson and Morrell 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incentive salience of cocaine across the postpartum period of the female rat

et al. 2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rationale-Objectives-Our prior conditioned place preference (CPP) work demonstrates that late (day16) postpartum female rats consistently prefer cocaine-over pup-associated chambers, whereas far fewer early postpartum (day8) females prefer the cocaine-associated chamber. The present study examines early and late postpartum females' preference for a cocaine-associated chamber when contrasted with a chamber associated with saline (rather than pups).Materials and methods-Postpartum females were tested for conditioned preference for chambers associated with cocaine (10 mg/kg subcutaneous (SC) or 0.5, 5, 10, or 20 mg/kg intraperitoneal (IP) injections) versus saline; preferences of virgin female and male rats for select cocaine stimuli (10mg/kg SC or IP) were also tested. Locomotion was recorded during CPP conditioning and testing.Results-Early and late postpartum females expressed strikingly similar preference for the cocaineassociated chamber across all administration routes and doses. IP cocaine produced an orderly, inverted U-shaped dose-preference curve, with preference peaking at the 5 mg/kg dose (83% of females). While many postpartum females preferred 10mg/kg cocaine administered either SC or IP, both virgin females and males expressed strong aversion to SC cocaine and, while virgin females strongly preferred IP cocaine, males remained relatively indifferent. Across 10mg/kg IP cocaineconditioning sessions, locomotor sensitization occurred exclusively in cocaine-but not salinepreferring postpartum females. Locomotor rate was lower in preferred versus nonpreferred chambers at CPP test.Conclusions-Early and late postpartum females may be equally and uniquely susceptible to sampling and/or abuse of modestly salient doses of cocaine (10mg/kg SC; 5mg/kg IP) compared to virgin females and/or males.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incentive salience of cocaine across the postpartum period of the female rat

et al. 2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A recent report by Lee et al (2000) has provided support for the view that the MPOA is involved in the motivational aspects of maternal behavior in rats. They found that lesions of the MPOA not only disrupted retrieving, nursing, and nest building, but also disrupted an operant bar press response when pups were used as a reward, but not when palatable food was used as a reward.…”

Section: The Medial Preoptic Area and Maternal Motivationmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…3. Lee, Clancy, and Fleming (2000) found that postpartum rats will bar-press in an operant chamber when rat pups are presented as a reinforcing stimulus. Pregnant females, who were not maternally responsive, did not bar-press at a high rate for pups, although they did so when a palatable food was used as a reward.…”

Section: A B Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivational systems and the neural circuitry of maternal behavior in the rat

Numan

2006

Developmental Psychobiology

304

269

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Jay Rosenblatt's approach-avoidance model of maternal behavior proposes that maternal behavior occurs when the tendency to approach infant stimuli is greater than the tendency to avoid such stimuli. Our research program has uncovered neural circuits which conform to such a model. We present evidence that the medial preoptic area (MPOA: located in the rostral hypothalamus) may regulate maternal responsiveness by depressing antagonistic neural systems which promote withdrawal responses while also activating appetitive neural systems which increase the attractiveness of infant-related stimuli. These MPOA circuits are activated by the hormonal events of late pregnancy. Preoptic efferents may suppress a central aversion system which includes an amygdala to anterior hypothalamic circuit. Preoptic efferents are also shown to interact with components of the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system to regulate proactive voluntary maternal responses. We make a distinction between specific (MPOA neurons) and nonspecific motivational systems (mesolimbic DA system) in the regulation of maternal responsiveness.

show abstract

“…A final area of consideration is the relationship between steroid hormones, particularly estrogen, in responding to cries. Lee, et al [54] showed that mother rats will bar-press to gain access to pups. Similarly, Pryce (reviewed in [93]) showed that female marmosets will bar-press to gain access to infants, even when the only stimulus is a recording of infant crying.…”

Section: Relationships Between Infant Crying and Parental Hormonesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural circuits underlying crying and cry responding in mammals

Newman

2007

Behavioural Brain Research

177

132

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Crying is a universal vocalization in human infants, as well as in the infants of other mammals. Little is known about the neural structures underlying cry production, or the circuitry that mediates a caregiver's response to cry sounds. In this review, the specific structures known or suspected to be involved in this circuit are identified, along with neurochemical systems and hormones for which evidence suggests a role in responding to infants and infant cries. In addition, evidence that crying elicits parental responses in different mammals is presented. An argument is made for including 'crying' as a functional category in the vocal repertoire of all mammalian infants (and the adults of some species). The prevailing neural model for crying production considers forebrain structures to be dispensable. However, evidence for the anterior cingulate gyrus in cry production, and this structure along with the amygdala and some other forebrain areas in responding to cries is presented.

show abstract

Mother rats bar-press for pups: effects of lesions of the mpoa and limbic sites on maternal behavior and operant responding for pup-reinforcement

Cited by 208 publications

References 21 publications

Incentive salience of cocaine across the postpartum period of the female rat

Incentive salience of cocaine across the postpartum period of the female rat

Motivational systems and the neural circuitry of maternal behavior in the rat

Neural circuits underlying crying and cry responding in mammals

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About