Tasaka Gen-Ichi, Hagihara Mitsue, Irie Satsuki, Kobayashi Haruna, Inada Kengo, Kobayashi Kenta, Kato Shigeki, Kobayashi Kazuto, Miyamichi Kazunari
Laboratory for Comparative Connectomics, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan.
Japan Science and Technology Agency, PRESTO, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan.
Sci Adv. 2025 Jul 4;11(27):eadr4620. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adr4620. Epub 2025 Jul 2.
Maternal behaviors, which are crucial for the survival of mammalian infants, require the coordinated operation of multiple brain regions to process infant cues, make decisions, and execute motor plans. Although these processes likely demand higher cognitive functions, the prefrontal areas that regulate limbic parental programs remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) excitatory projection neurons promote alloparental caregiving behaviors in female mice. By chronic microendoscopy, we observed robust yet adaptable representations of pup-directed anticipatory and motor-related activities within the OFC. Some of these plastic responses were significantly overlapped with those related to nonsocial reward signals. The inactivation of OFC output reduced the phasic activities of midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons specifically tied to pup retrieval and impaired the modulation of DA release to the ventral striatum during the acquisition of alloparental behaviors. These findings suggest that the OFC transiently boosts DA activity during the acquisition phase, thereby facilitating the manifestation of alloparental behaviors.
母性行为对哺乳动物幼崽的生存至关重要，它需要多个脑区协同运作，以处理幼崽线索、做出决策并执行运动计划。尽管这些过程可能需要更高的认知功能，但调节边缘系统亲代程序的前额叶区域仍知之甚少。在这里，我们表明眶额皮质（OFC）兴奋性投射神经元促进雌性小鼠的异亲照料行为。通过慢性显微内窥镜检查，我们观察到OFC内对幼崽的预期和运动相关活动有强大且可适应的表征。其中一些可塑性反应与非社交奖励信号相关的反应有显著重叠。OFC输出的失活降低了中脑多巴胺（DA）神经元与幼崽取回行为特异性相关的相位活动，并损害了在异亲行为习得过程中DA向腹侧纹状体释放的调节。这些发现表明，OFC在习得阶段短暂增强DA活性，从而促进异亲行为的表现。
