A lesion and neuroanatomical tract-tracing analysis of the role of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis in retrieval behavior and other aspects of maternal responsiveness in rats.

The ventral part of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis forms a junctional region between the medial and lateral preoptic areas. Previous work has shown that the neurons in this region express Fos-like immunoreactivity during maternal behavior, suggesting their involvement in maternal behavior control. Supporting this hypothesis, the first experiment shows that excitotoxic amino acid lesions of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis disrupt retrieval behavior and other aspects of maternal responsiveness in postpartum rats. The second study traces the efferent projections of the ventral bed nucleus with the anterograde tracer Phaseolis vulgaris leucoagglutinin. The following regions receive strong projections: lateral septum, substantia innominata, paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus, ventral premammillary nucleus, supramammillary nucleus, paraventricular thalamus, ventral tegmental area, periaqueductal gray, retrorubral field, and the region surrounding the locus coeruleus.