The Effects of Electrical Stimulation of the Medial Preoptic Area and the Medial Amygdala on Maternal Responsiveness in Female Rats<sup>a</sup>

Morgan, Hywel; Watchus, Jason; Fleming, Alison S.

doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1997.tb51980.x

Cited by 24 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Previous studies of rats have shown that the MPOA was most necessary for the occurrence of the active components of maternal behavior, especially retrieval (Franz et al, 1986;Jakubowski and Terkel, 1986;Numan et al, 1988;Numan, 1990;Lee and Brown, 2002). The reported findings showing that MPOA damage disrupted the operant bar-press response using pups as a rewarding stimulus in rats (Lee et al, 1999), that the preference for a pup-associated cue was enhanced by the electrical stimulation of the MPOA (Morgan et al, 1997(Morgan et al, , 1999, and that temporary inactivation of the MPOA disrupted maternal behavior in postpartum ewes (Perrin et al, 2007) suggest that the MPOA is involved in the general motivation for the maternal behavior rather than in a neural circuit that specifically regulates the retrieval response (Pereira et al, 2008;Numan and Stolzenberg, 2009;Numan and Woodside, 2010). It is most likely that the infanticide observed in this study was induced by the loss of maternal motivation caused by the MPOA damage.…”

Section: Maternal Motivation and Infanticide In Laboratory Micementioning

confidence: 65%

“…Second, expression of c-Fos and FosB proteins, markers of transcriptionally activated neurons, are induced in MPOA neurons during maternal behavior in rats and mice (Calamandrei and Keverne, 1994;Fleming et al, 1994;Numan and Numan, 1994;Brown et al, 1996;Lin et al, 1998a), and c-Fos expression in response to a pup-associated cue is elevated in MPOA neurons even in the absence of pups (Mattson and Morrell, 2005). Third, electrical stimulation on the MPOA facilitates maternal behavior and preference for pup-associated cues (Morgan et al, 1997(Morgan et al, , 1999. Lastly, the MPOA is known to be involved in the hormone-induced peripartum facilitation of maternal behavior in rats.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Functional, anatomical, and neurochemical differentiation of medial preoptic area subregions in relation to maternal behavior in the mouse

Tsuneoka

Maruyama

Yoshida

et al. 2013

J of Comparative Neurology

156

197

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In rodents, previous findings indicate critical involvement of the medial preoptic area (MPOA) in the neural control of maternal behavior. However, the specification of the particular MPOA subregions involved in maternal behavior and the identification of the neurochemical phenotype(s) of the essential neurons demands additional study. Therefore, we investigated the chemical neuroanatomy of the essential MPOA subregion for maternal behavior in C57BL/6J female mice. Using the oxytocinergic neurons in the dorsal MPOA as a primary regional marker, we first assessed the distribution of c-Fos-expressing neurons in the MPOA during maternal behavior using immunohistochemistry. Results showed that non-oxytocinergic neurons in the dorsal and ventral MPOA prominently expressed c-Fos during maternal behavior. Then using excitotoxic lesion studies, we determined the specific MPOA area that is necessary for maternal behavior. Bilateral lesions of the central MPOA, where c-Fos was expressed only moderately, effectively disrupted maternal behavior, although lesions to the dorsal and ventral MPOA regions were ineffective. These centrally lesioned females were highly infanticidal irrespective of their previous maternal experience. Neurochemical investigations showed that more than 75% of the c-Fos-expressing neurons in central MPOA were GABAergic. Many of them also expressed galanin, neurotensin, and/or tachykinin2 mRNAs. Finally, the central MPOA was populated by numerous glutamatergic neurons, although only a small percentage of these neurons colocalized with c-Fos. To conclude, the central MPOA is the indispensable subregion for mouse maternal behavior, and GABAergic and/or peptidergic neurons in this area were transcriptionally activated during maternal behavior.

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Section: Maternal Motivation and Infanticide In Laboratory Micementioning

confidence: 65%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Functional, anatomical, and neurochemical differentiation of medial preoptic area subregions in relation to maternal behavior in the mouse

Tsuneoka

Maruyama

Yoshida

et al. 2013

J of Comparative Neurology

156

197

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Female mice used in the current study were adults, and at this age, unlike in juveniles (27,28), very small lesions in the POA are sufficient to elicit severe deficits in maternal behaviors (2,3,29). On the other hand, electrical stimulation of the POA leads to shorter onset to maternal behaviors (30). Neuronal activation within the preoptic region, as measured by expression of the immediate early gene c-Fos, is significantly increased in animals exhibiting maternal behaviors (31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

siRNA silencing of estrogen receptor-α expression specifically in medial preoptic area neurons abolishes maternal care in female mice

Ribeiro

Musatov

Shteyler

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The medial preoptic area has been shown to be intricately involved in many behaviors, including locomotion, sexual behavior, maternal care, and aggression. The gene encoding estrogen receptor-α (ERα) protein is expressed in preoptic area neurons, and a very dense immunoreactive field of ERα is found in the preoptic region. ERα knockout animals show deficits in maternal care and sexual behavior and fail to exhibit increases in these behaviors in response to systemic estradiol treatment. In the present study, we used viralvector mediated RNA interference to silence ERα expression specifically in the preoptic area of female mice and measured a variety of behaviors, including social and sexual aggression, maternal care, and arousal activity. Suppression of ERα in the preoptic area almost completely abolished maternal care, significantly increasing the latency to pup retrieval and significantly reducing the time the moms spent nursing and licking the pups. Strikingly, maternal aggression toward a male intruder was not different between control and preoptic ERα-silenced mice, demonstrating the remarkably specific role of ERα in these neurons. Reduction of ERα expression in preoptic neurons significantly decreased sexual behavior in female mice and increased aggression toward both sexual partners and male intruders in a seminatural environment. Estrogen-dependent increases in arousal, measured by home cage activity, were not mediated by ERα expression in the preoptic neurons we targeted, as ERα-suppressed mice had increases similar to control mice. Thus, we have established that a specific gene in a specific group of neurons is required for a crucially important natural behavior.ating back to the 1970s, the preoptic region has been implicated in a variety of complex, natural, biologically crucial behaviors, ranging from sexual behavior to locomotion to maternal care. These roles for the preoptic region were first demonstrated using lesion studies; for instance, radiofrequency, electrolytic, and cytotoxic lesions of the medial preoptic area (MPA) were shown to disrupt many components of maternal care (1-6). Likewise, electrolytic lesions (7-9), chemical lesions (9-11), or knife-cuts disrupting preoptic afferents (12,13) all severely impair or abolish male sexual behavior, whereas electrical stimulation of this region enhances male copulatory behaviors (14). Additionally, c-Fos expression, a marker of neuronal activation, is significantly increased in the preoptic region following copulatory behaviors (15). With respect to locomotor activity, there is ample evidence demonstrating that electrical or chemical stimulation of preoptic neurons enhances locomotor activity in rats (16)(17)(18)(19).Given the importance of the preoptic region in mediating these complex biologically relevant hormone-dependent behaviors, the next step was to establish the cytochemical make-up of these populations of neurons. Before immunocytochemical techniques were routinely used, placement of hormone extracts was used to delineate the hormone and...

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“…Moreover, maternal behavior in virgin rats is stimulated when this inhibitory input is blocked by either rendering the females anosmic (10) or lesioning the amygdala (11, 32). Amygdaloid kindling, which enhances fearfulness in rat, also increases neophobia and decreases approaches to pup-related stimuli in virgin rats (30). The possible reciprocal relationships between the amygdala and SVZ the expression of maternal behavior merit investigation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These findings suggest that the cues which elicit withdrawal are transmitted through the amygdala. The amygdaloid kindling, which enhances fearfulness in rat, increases neophobia and decreases approaches to pup-related stimuli in virgin rats (30). These findings suggest that olfactory system via amygdala and increases neurogenesis in the SVZ is included if virgin female are maternal.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of maternal behavior induction and pup exposure on neurogenesis in adult, virgin female rats

Furuta

Bridges

2009

Brain Research Bulletin

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The states of pregnancy and lactation bring about a range of physiological and behavioral changes in the adult mammal that prepare the mother to care for her young. Cell proliferation increases in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the female rodent brain during both pregnancy and lactation when compared to that in cycling, diestrous females. In the present study, the effects of maternal behavior induction and pup exposure on neurogenesis in nulliparous rats were examined in order to determine whether maternal behavior itself, independent of pregnancy and lactation, might affect neurogenesis. Adult, nulliparous, Sprague-Dawley, female rats were exposed daily to foster young in order to induce maternal behavior. Following the induction of maternal behavior each maternal subject plus females that were exposed to pups for a comparable number of test days, but did not display maternal behavior, and subjects that had received no pup exposure were injected with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU, 90 mg/kg, i.v.). Brain sections were double-labeled for BrdU and the neural marker, NeuN, to examine the proliferating cell population. Increases in the number of double-labeled cells were found in the maternal virgin brain when compared with the number of double-labeled cells present in non-maternal, pup-exposed nulliparous rats and in females not exposed to young. No changes were evident in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus as a function of maternal behavior. These data indicate that in nulliparous female rats maternal behavior itself is associated with the stimulation of neurogenesis in the SVZ.

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The Effects of Electrical Stimulation of the Medial Preoptic Area and the Medial Amygdala on Maternal Responsiveness in Female Rats^a

Cited by 24 publications

References 3 publications

Functional, anatomical, and neurochemical differentiation of medial preoptic area subregions in relation to maternal behavior in the mouse

Functional, anatomical, and neurochemical differentiation of medial preoptic area subregions in relation to maternal behavior in the mouse

siRNA silencing of estrogen receptor-α expression specifically in medial preoptic area neurons abolishes maternal care in female mice

Effects of maternal behavior induction and pup exposure on neurogenesis in adult, virgin female rats

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The Effects of Electrical Stimulation of the Medial Preoptic Area and the Medial Amygdala on Maternal Responsiveness in Female Ratsa

Cited by 24 publications

References 3 publications

Functional, anatomical, and neurochemical differentiation of medial preoptic area subregions in relation to maternal behavior in the mouse

Functional, anatomical, and neurochemical differentiation of medial preoptic area subregions in relation to maternal behavior in the mouse

siRNA silencing of estrogen receptor-α expression specifically in medial preoptic area neurons abolishes maternal care in female mice

Effects of maternal behavior induction and pup exposure on neurogenesis in adult, virgin female rats

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The Effects of Electrical Stimulation of the Medial Preoptic Area and the Medial Amygdala on Maternal Responsiveness in Female Rats^a