Yuan Wei, Yang Xiang-Ping, Yu Peng, Jia Rui, Tai Fa-Dao, Wei Bin, Liu Xiao, Ma Lei-Ge
Institute of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, 710062, China.
Institute of Behavioral and Physical Sciences, College of Life Sciences, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 730070, China.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2018 Mar;204(3):257-269. doi: 10.1007/s00359-017-1229-x. Epub 2017 Dec 5.
Mothers often prefer to care for their own offspring rather than those of other females. However, whether fathers respond differently to their own pups and to alien ones remains unclear. In this study, we found that male mandarin voles (Microtus mandarinus) directed more sniffing toward their own pups than toward alien pups. The numbers of Fos-immunoreactive neurons in the medial preoptic nucleus, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate cortex were significantly increased when fathers were exposed to an alien pups; however, more brain regions such as paraventricular nucleus, hypothalamic supraoptic nucleus, lateral habenula, ventral lateral septal nucleus, and medial amygdaloid nucleus showed increased number of Fos-immunoreactive neurons activated when the fathers were exposed to their own pups. Exposure to their own pups also induced a greater number of Fos-immunoreactive neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex, paraventricular nucleus, hypothalamic supraoptic nucleus, lateral habenula, ventral lateral septal nucleus and medial amygdaloid nucleus, as well as higher expression of oxytocin and vasopressin in the paraventricular nucleus, compared with exposure to alien pups. Our results indicated that fathers demonstrated different behavioral and neural responses to their own and to alien pups.
母亲通常更愿意照顾自己的后代，而不是其他雌性的后代。然而，父亲对自己的幼崽和外来幼崽的反应是否不同仍不清楚。在这项研究中，我们发现雄性棕色田鼠（Microtus mandarinus）对自己的幼崽比对外来幼崽有更多的嗅闻行为。当父亲接触外来幼崽时，视前内侧核、终纹床核、伏隔核、前扣带回皮质中Fos免疫反应性神经元的数量显著增加；然而，当父亲接触自己的幼崽时，更多的脑区如室旁核、下丘脑视上核、外侧缰核、腹侧外侧隔核和内侧杏仁核显示Fos免疫反应性神经元的数量增加。与接触外来幼崽相比，接触自己的幼崽还在前扣带回皮质、室旁核、下丘脑视上核、外侧缰核、腹侧外侧隔核和内侧杏仁核中诱导出更多的Fos免疫反应性神经元，并且室旁核中催产素和加压素的表达更高。我们的结果表明，父亲对自己的幼崽和外来幼崽表现出不同的行为和神经反应。
