Oxytocin neurons enable social transmission of maternal behaviour

Abstract

Maternal care, including by non-biological parents, is important for offspring survival1–8. Oxytocin1,2,9–15, which is released by the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN), is a critical maternal hormone. In mice, oxytocin enables neuroplasticity in the auditory cortex for maternal recognition of pup distress15. However, it is unclear how initial parental experience promotes hypothalamic signalling and cortical plasticity for reliable maternal care. Here we continuously monitored the behaviour of female virgin mice co-housed with an experienced mother and litter. This documentary approach was synchronized with neural recordings from the virgin PVN, including oxytocin neurons. These cells were activated as virgins were enlisted in maternal care by experienced mothers, who shepherded virgins into the nest and demonstrated pup retrieval. Virgins visually observed maternal retrieval, which activated PVN oxytocin neurons and promoted alloparenting. Thus rodents can acquire maternal behaviour by social transmission, providing a mechanism for adapting the brains of adult caregivers to infant needs via endogenous oxytocin.

Behavioral, neurochemical, and neuroimmune changes associated with social buffering and stress contagion

“…Additionally, prairie voles exposed to a stressed partner engaged in more partner-directed social grooming behavior – an effect modulated by OT in the ACC ( Burkett et al, 2016 ). A recent study demonstrated that the social transmission of maternal behavior, including the visual observation and acquisition of this behavior, was mediated by PVN OT ( Carcea et al, 2021 ), supporting the pivotal role by OT in facilitating the social transmission of information and influencing social contagion.…”

Automatic mapping of multiplexed social receptive fields by deep learning and GPU-accelerated 3D videography

“…For demonstration and validation, we applied our analysis pipeline to barrel cortex neurons, and were able to recover expected neural tuning to (lateralized) whisker touch and movement 59 . Our end-to-end tracking method and analysis pipeline maps tuning to movements and postures of the partner’s body, and is thus ideally suited to detect potential social interaction systems such as rodent ‘mirror neuron’ signals in other brain areas 70 , 71 . The 45 predictor features that we have included in our analysis pipeline could be expanded to add additional features of interest.…”

Viral vectors for opto-electrode recording and photometry-based imaging of oxytocin neurons in anesthetized and socially interacting rats

“…Selective recording of OT neuronal activity during social behavior has only recently been made possible ( Carcea et al, 2021 ; Resendez et al, 2020 ; Tang et al, 2020 ) thanks to the employment of recombinant adeno-associated viral (rAAVs) vectors that achieve specific expression of transgenes in OT neurons, in combination with electrophysiology or calcium imaging techniques. The two methods that we use for cell-type specific recording in freely moving animals are extracellular recordings of action potentials combined with optogenetic tagging (opto-tagging) ( Lima et al, 2009 ) and imaging of genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) ( Chen et al, 2013 ), such as GCaMP6s, with fiber photometry.…”