Division of Developmental Neuroscience, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Dev Psychobiol. 2012 Jan;54(1):70-6. doi: 10.1002/dev.20577. Epub 2011 Jul 14.
In maternal potentiation, the rate of vocalization by a young organism during isolation is greatly enhanced if that isolation has been immediately preceded by an interaction with the mother (or other adult female in the case of rats). The enhancement in isolation-induced vocalization rate does not occur if the young animal had an interaction with other social companions like littermates or with familiar inanimate stimuli like home cage shavings. The present study demonstrates that pups whose vagus nerve is cut below the diaphragm do not potentiate vocalization after an interaction with their dam. The vocalization rates of denervated pups in a first isolation, in the presence of the dam, and during cold exposure do not differ from control pups. Their non-vocal behaviors also appear unaffected by the surgery. Similar to what has been shown in studies of fever-induced behavioral changes, an intact vagus nerve from the gut is necessary for young rat pups to show normal social mediation of their isolation-induced vocal responses.
在母体增强效应中，如果幼体在与母亲（或其他成年雌性大鼠）互动后立即被隔离，其发声率会大大提高。如果幼体与其他社会同伴（如同窝幼仔）或熟悉的无生命刺激物（如家鼠笼刨花）互动，那么隔离引起的发声率增强就不会发生。本研究表明，与母体互动后，膈神经以下被切断的幼鼠不会增强发声。在第一次隔离中，有母鼠存在时，以及在寒冷暴露期间，去神经幼鼠的发声率与对照组幼鼠没有差异。它们的非发声行为似乎也不受手术影响。类似于在发热引起的行为变化研究中所表明的，完整的来自肠道的迷走神经对于幼鼠表现出正常的社交中介作用，从而调节其隔离引起的发声反应是必要的。
