Moore C L, Dou H, Juraska J M
Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston 02125.
Brain Res. 1992 Feb 14;572(1-2):52-6. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(92)90449-j.
The role of maternal stimulation in the development of a lumbar motor nucleus (spinal nucleus of the bulboca vernosus, SNB) was investigated. The perineum, which has afferents to the lumbar region, is stimulated throughout early development by maternal licking, a behavior that is elicited by chemosignals secreted by the pups. In the present study, half of the dams were treated with intranasal zinc sulfate throughout the postpartum period, which led to a specific reduction in maternal stimulation of pup perineum by interfering with the reception of eliciting signals. Adult offspring of both sexes from anosmic dams had 11% fewer SNB motor neurons than normally stimulated controls, an effect which was most apparent in the rostral portion of the nucleus. There was no effect of treatment on neuron size. It was concluded that afferent input provided by species-typical maternal behavior contributes to the number of neurons that survive the neonatal period of normal cell death.
研究了母体刺激在腰运动核（球海绵体肌脊髓核，SNB）发育中的作用。会阴区有传入神经至腰部区域，在整个早期发育过程中，母鼠通过舔舐来刺激该区域，这种行为是由幼崽分泌的化学信号引发的。在本研究中，一半的母鼠在产后期间经鼻内注射硫酸锌进行处理，这通过干扰引发信号的接收导致母体对幼崽会阴区的刺激特异性减少。嗅觉缺失母鼠的成年雌雄后代的SNB运动神经元比正常受刺激的对照组少11%，这种影响在核的 Rostral 部分最为明显。处理对神经元大小没有影响。得出的结论是，典型物种的母体行为提供的传入输入有助于在正常细胞死亡的新生儿期存活的神经元数量。
