Keller Matthieu, Meurisse Maryse, Lévy Frédéric
Laboratoire de Physiologie de la Reproduction et des Comportements, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Tours, Nouzilly, France.
Behav Neurosci. 2004 Dec;118(6):1274-84. doi: 10.1037/0735-7044.118.6.1274.
In sheep, recognition of the familiar lamb by the mother depends on the learning of its olfactory signature after parturition. The authors quantified Fos changes in order to identify brain regions activated during lamb odor memory formation. Brain activation was compared with those measured in anosmic ewes displaying maternal behavior but not individual lamb recognition. In intact ewes, parturition induced significant increase in Fos expression in olfactory cortical regions and in cortical amygdala, whereas in anosmic mothers, Fos expression was very low. In contrast, no difference was observed between intact and anosmic ewes in hypothalamic areas and medial amygdala, suggesting a differentiation between the neural network controlling maternal responsiveness and that involved in olfactory lamb memory.
