Bridges R S, Mann P E
Department of Comparative Medicine, Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, Massachusetts 01536.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 1994;19(5-7):611-22. doi: 10.1016/0306-4530(94)90045-0.
Most adult female mammals display an immediate onset of maternal care toward their offspring at parturition, whereas the responses of inexperienced, nulliparous females are often less intense or absent. The shift from being a slow or nonresponder in nulliparous females to a rapid responder at parturition in primiparous animals is induced in part by the endocrine changes of pregnancy. This report reviews recent evidence demonstrating a role for prolactin in the stimulation of maternal behavior in the rat. Moreover, new findings are presented that indicate that endogenous rat prolactin acts centrally to stimulate maternal behavior in steroid-primed, nulliparous rats and that the ventromedial hypothalamus in addition to the medial preoptic area are important neural substrates regulating the rapid induction of maternal behavior at parturition.
大多数成年雌性哺乳动物在分娩时会立即对其后代表现出母性关怀，而未生育过的无经验雌性的反应往往不那么强烈或根本没有反应。初产动物从未生育过的缓慢或无反应者转变为分娩时的快速反应者，部分是由怀孕时的内分泌变化引起的。本报告回顾了最近的证据，证明催乳素在刺激大鼠母性行为中发挥作用。此外，还提出了新的研究结果，表明内源性大鼠催乳素在类固醇预处理的未生育大鼠中通过中枢作用刺激母性行为，并且除了内侧视前区外，腹内侧下丘脑也是调节分娩时母性行为快速诱导的重要神经基质。
