Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.
Department of Biology, Pomona College, Claremont, CA, USA.
J Neuroendocrinol. 2023 Jul;35(7):e13237. doi: 10.1111/jne.13237. Epub 2023 Feb 15.
An animal's umwelt, comprising its perception of the sensory environment, which is inherently subjective, can change across the lifespan in accordance with major life events. In mammals, the onset of motherhood, in particular, is associated with a neural and sensory plasticity that alters a mother's detection and use of sensory information such as infant-related sensory stimuli. Although the literature surrounding mammalian mothers is well established, very few studies have addressed the effects of parenthood on sensory plasticity in mammalian fathers. In this review, we summarize the major findings on the effects of parenthood on behavioural and neural responses to sensory stimuli from pups in rodent mothers, with a focus on the olfactory, auditory, and somatosensory systems, as well as multisensory integration. We also review the available literature on sensory plasticity in rodent fathers. Finally, we discuss the importance of sensory plasticity for effective parental care, hormonal modulation of plasticity, and an exploration of temporal, ecological, and life-history considerations of sensory plasticity associated with parenthood. The changes in processing and/or perception of sensory stimuli associated with the onset of parental care may have both transient and long-lasting effects on parental behaviour and cognition in both mothers and fathers; as such, several promising areas of study, such as on the molecular/genetic, neurochemical, and experiential underpinnings of parenthood-related sensory plasticity, as well as determinants of interspecific variation, remain potential avenues for further exploration.
动物的环境包括其对感官环境的感知，这种感知本质上是主观的，可以根据重大生命事件在整个生命周期中发生变化。在哺乳动物中，尤其是母亲的角色转变，与神经和感官可塑性有关，这种可塑性改变了母亲对婴儿相关感官刺激等感官信息的检测和利用。尽管有关哺乳动物母亲的文献已经很完善，但很少有研究探讨父母身份对哺乳动物父亲的感官可塑性的影响。在这篇综述中，我们总结了主要发现，即父母身份对啮齿动物母亲的幼崽的感官刺激的行为和神经反应的影响，重点关注嗅觉、听觉和躯体感觉系统以及多感官整合。我们还回顾了有关啮齿动物父亲的感官可塑性的现有文献。最后，我们讨论了感官可塑性对有效育儿的重要性、可塑性的激素调节以及与父母身份相关的感官可塑性的时间、生态和生活史考虑因素的探索。与开始育儿相关的感官刺激的处理和/或感知的变化可能对母亲和父亲的育儿行为和认知产生短暂和持久的影响；因此，一些有前途的研究领域，如与育儿相关的感官可塑性的分子/遗传、神经化学和经验基础，以及种间变异的决定因素，仍然是进一步探索的潜在途径。
