Circuits for care

A small population of hypothalamic neurons orchestrates parenting behaviors Raising a child to independence requires an estimated 13 million calories (1), near-constant attention, and the ability to survive on little sleep. Because parents perform this monumental task without any immediate benefit, it has been suspected that parental behavior relies on evolutionarily sculpted neural circuits. What do we know about the neural basis of parenting?

[1]  C. Dulac,et al.  Neural control of maternal and paternal behaviors , 2014, Science.

[2]  J. Salamone,et al.  The Mysterious Motivational Functions of Mesolimbic Dopamine , 2012, Neuron.

[3]  J. Mellor,et al.  Is H3K4me3 instructive for transcription activation? , 2017, BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology.

[4]  M. Numan,et al.  Medial preoptic area and maternal behavior in the female rat. , 1974, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[5]  F. S. Saal.  Time-contingent change in infanticide and parental behavior induced by ejaculation in male mice , 1985, Physiology & Behavior.

[6]  C. Dulac,et al.  Neural control of parental behaviors , 2018, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[7]  James M. Otis,et al.  Hormonal gain control of a medial preoptic area social reward circuit , 2017, Nature Neuroscience.

[8]  Nimrod D. Rubinstein,et al.  Functional circuit architecture underlying parental behaviour , 2018, Nature.

[9]  Weizhe Hong,et al.  Neural Circuit Mechanisms of Social Behavior , 2018, Neuron.

[10]  R. Gandelman,et al.  Lever pressing for pups: Evidence for hormonal influence upon maternal behavior of mice , 1985, Hormones and Behavior.

[11]  S. Hrdy.  Variable postpartum responsiveness among humans and other primates with “cooperative breeding”: A comparative and evolutionary perspective , 2016, Hormones and Behavior.

[12]  Dayu Lin,et al.  A Hypothalamic Midbrain Pathway Essential for Driving Maternal Behaviors , 2018, Neuron.

[13]  B. Hanusa,et al.  Onset timing, thoughts of self-harm, and diagnoses in postpartum women with screen-positive depression findings. , 2013, JAMA psychiatry.

[14]  Raag D. Airan,et al.  Natural Neural Projection Dynamics Underlying Social Behavior , 2014, Cell.

[15]  J. Morley,et al.  The pineal gland and opiate-induced feeding , 1985, Physiology & Behavior.

[16]  A. E. Fisher.  Maternal and sexual behavior induced by intracranial chemical stimulation. , 1956, Science.