Department of Psychiatry, The McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, P.O. Box 100256, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA.
Brain Res Bull. 2012 Aug 1;88(5):534-42. doi: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2012.05.012. Epub 2012 May 27.
Extracellular single unit activity was recorded from medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of postpartum dams over the course of 3 days while they engaged in spontaneous pup-directed behaviors and non-specific exploratory behavior. Out of 109 units identified over the course of the experiment, 15 units were observed to be pup-responsive and 15 increased their discharge rates non-specifically while not attending to pups. An association between neuronal activity and typical maternal behaviors (e.g., retrieval, pup-grooming, nursing) was not observed. Instead, brief bouts of snout contact with pups were accompanied by phasic increases and decreases in spike rates. The observed pup contact responsive cells might play a role in processing of sensory feedback from pups or the transmission of modulatory output to other subcortical maternal brain areas.
在产后母鼠进行自发的幼鼠导向行为和非特定的探索行为的过程中，记录了其内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）的细胞外单单位活动。在实验过程中鉴定出的 109 个单位中，有 15 个单位对幼鼠有反应，有 15 个单位在不关注幼鼠时非特异性地增加了放电率。神经元活动与典型的母性行为（例如，检索、幼鼠梳理、哺乳）之间没有观察到关联。相反，与幼鼠短暂的口鼻接触伴随着尖峰率的阶段性增加和减少。观察到的幼鼠接触反应细胞可能在处理来自幼鼠的感觉反馈或调节输出到其他皮质下母鼠脑区的过程中发挥作用。
