Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2018 Apr;49:116-122. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2018.02.002. Epub 2018 Feb 23.
Parenting is a multicomponent social behavior that is essential for the survival of offspring in many species. Despite extensive characterization of individual brain areas involved in parental care, we do not fully understand how discrete aspects of this behavior are orchestrated at the neural circuit level. Recent progress in identifying genetically specified neuronal populations critical for parenting, and the use of genetic and viral tools for circuit-cracking now allow us to deconstruct the underlying circuitry and, thus, to elucidate how different aspects of parental care are controlled. Here we review the latest advances, outline possible organizational principles of parental circuits and discuss future challenges.
育儿是一种多成分的社会行为,对许多物种中后代的生存至关重要。尽管已经广泛描述了与亲代照料相关的个体脑区,但我们仍不完全理解这种行为的离散方面是如何在神经回路水平上协调的。最近在鉴定对亲代行为至关重要的遗传特化神经元群体方面取得的进展,以及使用遗传和病毒工具进行回路破解,现在使我们能够解构潜在的回路,从而阐明亲代照料的不同方面是如何受到控制的。在这里,我们回顾了最新的进展,概述了亲代回路的可能组织原则,并讨论了未来的挑战。