Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Psychol Rev. 2023 Jul;130(4):873-895. doi: 10.1037/rev0000374. Epub 2022 Jun 9.
Maternal behavior is a highly motivated and adaptive social behavior. Its frequency and pattern change across the postpartum period in response to the changing characteristics of the young and psychophysiological state of the mother. In rodents, maternal behavior peaks shortly after parturition, remains stable for a certain period of time, and then declines gradually until weaning. These dramatic behavioral changes all happen within a 3- to 4-week period. This article reviews evidence on the role of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in the regulation of the postpartum maternal behavior cycle in rats. Based on this review, a triadic model is proposed to explain how the mPFC, functioning as an executive control system, organizes different patterned maternal responses in different stages of postpartum via its interactions with the maternal excitatory system (centered around the medial preoptic area, the mesolimbic dopamine [DA] system) and the maternal inhibitory system (centered around the olfactory bulb-medial amygdala-ventromedial hypothalamus system). Dopamine and serotonin are hypothesized to operate in all three neural systems to regulate maternal behavior by influencing the motivational, executive control, and memory processes. This triadic model provides a useful framework for understanding dynamic changes of postpartum maternal behavior, as it integrates the evidence-supported approach-withdrawal model with the new prefrontal regulatory model of maternal behavior. Future research aimed at delineating the exact maternal neurocircuits and their interactions could benefit from the ideas derived from this model. Given that human maternal behavior is mainly cortical-driven, this model has significant implications for constructing neural models of human parental behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
母性行为是一种高度动机和适应性的社会行为。它的频率和模式会随着产后时间的变化而变化，以适应幼崽的变化特征和母亲的心理生理状态。在啮齿动物中，母性行为在分娩后不久达到高峰，在一定时间内保持稳定，然后逐渐下降，直到断奶。这些剧烈的行为变化都发生在 3-4 周的时间内。本文综述了内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）在调节大鼠产后母性行为周期中的作用的证据。基于这一综述，提出了一个三元模型来解释 mPFC 如何作为一个执行控制系统，通过与母性行为兴奋系统（以中脑视前区为中心，中脑边缘多巴胺[DA]系统）和母性行为抑制系统（以嗅球-杏仁核-下丘脑腹内侧系统为中心）相互作用，在产后不同阶段组织不同模式的母性行为反应。多巴胺和血清素被假设在这三个神经系统中发挥作用，通过影响动机、执行控制和记忆过程来调节母性行为。这个三元模型为理解产后母性行为的动态变化提供了一个有用的框架，因为它将有证据支持的趋近-回避模型与母性行为的新前额叶调节模型结合起来。未来旨在描绘确切的母性行为神经回路及其相互作用的研究可以从这个模型中得到启发。鉴于人类母性行为主要是皮质驱动的，这个模型对构建人类父母行为的神经模型具有重要意义。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2023 APA，保留所有权利）。
