Motivational aspects of maternal anxiolysis in lactating rats

Abstract

These experiments show that maternity induces changes in the way the animals react to the environment, rendering them less anxious to aversive stimuli. The degree of experimental anxiolysis displayed by maternal animals varies according to their maternal motivation, which is modulated by the female's endocrine state, the pups and/or the dopaminergic system.

Rat dams exposed repeatedly to a daily brief separation from the pups exhibit increased maternal behavior, decreased anxiety and altered levels of receptors for estrogens (ERα, ERβ), oxytocin and serotonin (5-HT1A) in their brain

“…It is well known that during lactation anxiety is reduced both in rats (for a review see Neumann, 2003;Fleming and Luebke, 1981;Ferreira et al, 2002;Lonstein, 2005;Pereira et al, 2005) and in humans (Lonstein, 2007;Jonas et al, 2008). Our results show that on PND12 increased maternal behavior is correlated with lower anxiety and that experimental mothers on both PND12 and PND22 showed higher levels of different aspects of maternal behavior and lower anxiety.…”

Effort-related functions of nucleus accumbens dopamine and associated forebrain circuits

“…Thus, fundamental aspects of primary food reward remain intact after depletions of accumbens DA. Although the present review is focused upon the role of DA in food motivation, similar conclusions have been reached in studies involving sexual behavior (Hull et al 1991;Paredes and Agmo 2004) and maternal behavior (Numan et al 2005;Pereira et al 2005).…”

Changes in anxiety and cognition due to reproductive experience: A review of data from rodent and human mothers

“…Chronic high Table 1 Summary of pregnancy and reproduction effects on anxiety, cognition, and neural function in the rodent mother. Windle et al (1997), Shanks et al (1999) # neural activity in regions associated with stress/anxiety da Costa et al (1996), Wartella et al (2003) # in anxiety-related behaviors Lonstein (2005), Pereira et al (2005) After weaning # in anxiety-related behaviors Love et al (2005), Agrati et al, 2008 " in anxiety-related behaviors Byrnes and Bridges (2006), Byrnes et al (2007), Macbeth et al (2008a) Cognition/memory Pregnancy " spatial memory in various stages of pregnancy Galea et al (2000), Bodensteiner et al (2006), Pawluski et al (2006b), Macbeth et al (2008b) Postpartum/ lactation # spatial memory from postnatal day 1-4; Darnaudery et al (2007) " spatial memory by postnatal day 14 After weaning " spatial memory in primiparous and multiparuos females Kinsley et al (1999), Lambert et al (2005), Pawluski et al (2006a), Paris and Frye (2008) " spatial memory in multiparous females months after weaning Gatewood et al (2005), Love et al (2005), Lemaire et al (2006), Macbeth et al (2008a) Neural function Pregnancy " dendritic spines in CA1 hippocampus " neurogenesis in subventricular zone Shingo et al (2003), Furuta and Bridges (2005) " monoamine activity in CA1 and CA3 hippocampus Macbeth et al (2008b) Postpartum/ lactation " dendritic spines in CA1 hippocampus # neurogenesis in DG in early postpartum; returns to normal within 2 weeks postpartum Darnaudery et al (2007), Leuner et al (2007) After weaning…”