Numan M
Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02167.
Acta Paediatr Suppl. 1994 Jun;397:19-28. doi: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1994.tb13261.x.
This article reviews work that shows that the medial preoptic area of the hypothalamus plays a crucial role in controlling the occurrence of maternal behavior in rats. A primary goal of this report is to fit the medial preoptic area into a larger neural circuitry, examining its critical inputs and outputs. Lesions of the medial preoptic area disrupt maternal behavior and estradiol and prolactin injections into this region activate maternal behavior. The medial amygdala, which is located in the limbic telencephalon, sends a neural projection to the preoptic region. Research indicates that this projection influences maternal behavior by relaying olfactory input to the medial preoptic area. The output of the preoptic area influences maternal behavior through descending projections to the brain stem. One of the influences of such projections might be to regulate neural circuits involved in controlling specific maternal responses, such as retrieval (carrying of pups) behavior.
本文回顾了相关研究工作，这些研究表明，下丘脑的内侧视前区在控制大鼠母性行为的发生中起着关键作用。本报告的一个主要目标是将内侧视前区纳入一个更大的神经回路中，研究其关键的输入和输出。内侧视前区的损伤会破坏母性行为，而向该区域注射雌二醇和催乳素会激活母性行为。位于边缘端脑的内侧杏仁核向视前区发出神经投射。研究表明，这种投射通过将嗅觉输入传递到内侧视前区来影响母性行为。视前区的输出通过向下投射到脑干来影响母性行为。这种投射的影响之一可能是调节参与控制特定母性反应的神经回路，比如找回（携带幼崽）行为。
