Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2011 Apr;197(4):329-37. doi: 10.1007/s00359-010-0617-2. Epub 2011 Jan 12.
Oxytocin facilitates social recognition in rats and mice, onset of maternal behavior in virgin mice and formation of pair bonds without copulation in prairie voles. However, the relationship between this peptide and paternal behavior in primates remains largely unknown. We investigated whether oxytocin affects paternal behavior in common marmosets. In these primates, fathers as well as mothers take care of their infants, and transferring food to the infants is one of their more obvious caretaking behaviors. We tested whether oxytocin and an oxytocin receptor antagonist affect the transfer of food to offspirng by fathers. After intracerebroventricular infusion of the vehicle, oxytocin, or the oxytocin receptor antagonist, the fathers' behavior, including picking up food, transferring food to the offspring, and refusing to transfer food to the offspring, was analyzed. Compared with the vehicle, oxytocin reduced the frequency of refusal. This was not caused by reduction of appetite. Although the oxytocin receptor antagonist did not change the frequency of refusal behavior of the fathers statistically significant manner, these observations suggest that the tolerance of the adult male marmoset toward its offspring as shown by the transfer of food is increased by oxytocin administered into the central nervous system.
催产素促进大鼠和小鼠的社交识别、处女鼠的母性行为以及草原田鼠无需交配即可形成配对关系。然而，这种肽与灵长类动物的父性行为之间的关系在很大程度上仍不清楚。我们研究了催产素是否会影响普通狨猴的父性行为。在这些灵长类动物中，父亲和母亲都会照顾他们的婴儿，向婴儿喂食是他们更明显的照顾行为之一。我们测试了催产素和催产素受体拮抗剂是否会影响父亲向后代传递食物。在向脑室输注载体、催产素或催产素受体拮抗剂后，分析了父亲的行为，包括捡起食物、将食物转移给后代以及拒绝将食物转移给后代。与载体相比，催产素减少了拒绝的频率。这不是由食欲下降引起的。尽管催产素受体拮抗剂没有以统计学上显著的方式改变父亲拒绝行为的频率，但这些观察结果表明，向中枢神经系统内给药催产素会增加成年雄性狨猴对其后代的容忍度，表现在食物传递上。
