Champagne Frances A, Meaney Michael J
Columbia University, Department of Psychology, New York, NY 10027, USA.
Behav Neurosci. 2007 Dec;121(6):1353-63. doi: 10.1037/0735-7044.121.6.1353.
Cross-fostering studies in the rat have illustrated the importance of the postnatal environment in mediating the transmission of maternal licking/grooming (LG) from mother to offspring. The authors addressed the question of how postweaning social conditions can alter the patterns of maternal behavior. Juvenile female offspring of high LG and low LG mothers were placed in either standard, enriched, or impoverished postweaning environments for 50 consecutive days and then mated and observed with their own litters. Analysis of LG behavior indicated that the effect of postweaning environment was dependent on the level of postnatal mother-infant interaction. Postweaning isolation reduced exploratory behavior, maternal LG, and oxytocin receptor binding in the offspring of high LG mothers, whereas social enrichment enhanced exploration, LG behavior, and oxytocin receptor binding of low LG offspring. These effects were also transmitted to the next generation of offspring. Thus, maternal LG and the neural mechanisms that regulate this behavior exhibited a high degree of plasticity in response to changes in environment both within and beyond the postnatal period, with implications for the transmission of behavioral response to novelty and maternal care across generations.
对大鼠的交叉养育研究表明了产后环境在介导母鼠舔舐/梳理毛发(LG)行为从母亲传递给后代过程中的重要性。作者探讨了断奶后社会环境如何改变母性行为模式这一问题。将高LG和低LG母鼠的幼年雌性后代连续50天置于标准、丰富或贫瘠的断奶后环境中,然后让它们交配并观察其与自己幼崽的情况。对LG行为的分析表明,断奶后环境的影响取决于产后母婴互动的程度。断奶后隔离减少了高LG母鼠后代的探索行为、母鼠LG行为以及催产素受体结合,而社会丰富化增强了低LG后代的探索、LG行为以及催产素受体结合。这些影响也传递给了下一代后代。因此,母鼠LG行为以及调节这种行为的神经机制在产后期间内外环境变化时表现出高度可塑性,这对跨代行为对新奇事物的反应和母性关怀的传递具有重要意义。