According to a joint research between Azabu University and New York University, mother mice that are raising children show the behavior of teaching child-rearing to female mice that have no experience of raising children, and inexperienced mice also develop maternity quickly by such experience. It became clear that oxytocin was involved.
This research group, which focused on the development of motherhood in mice, found that breeding a female with no child-rearing experience together with a mother mouse that is raising a child accelerates the development of motherhood compared to the case of breeding alone.In humans and primates, it has long been known that mothers teach child-rearing to inexperienced females belonging to the herd, and that receiving guidance and watching child-rearing accelerates maternal development. It was newly revealed that similar educational behaviors can be seen in mice.
When the inexperienced female and the mother and child live together, the mother mouse actively taught child-rearing, such as pulling the inexperienced female into the nest where the child is and placing the child in front of the inexperienced female.Furthermore, it was also found that motherhood develops in the same way by showing the child-rearing of the mother mouse by separating the inexperienced female with the mother and child by separating them with a transparent partition.
Inexperienced females develop maternality as the number of times they are drawn into the nest by the mother mouse, and when they are drawn into the nest, activation of nerves that produce "oxytocin", which is known as a hormone that initiates maternal behavior, is observed. rice field.On the other hand, when the oxytocin nerve was pharmacogenically suppressed, it was also found that maternal development was not observed, suggesting the involvement of oxytocin in the transmission and development of child-rearing behavior.
Further elucidation of the social transmission of maternal behavior via oxytocin is expected in the future.
Paper information:[Nature] Oxytocin neurons enable social transmission of maternal behavior
