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PubMed2003

Repeated neonatal pain influences maternal behavior, but not stress responsiveness in rat offspring.

Early preterm neonates in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are subjected to repeated painful procedures which could sensitize their responses to pain and potentiate neuroendocrine and behavioral responses to subsequent stressors in the long-term. In this study, we used the model of the neonatal rat to test the effects of repeated pain during the first 2 weeks of life on neuroendocrine responses (CRF, ACTH and corticosterone) to stressors varying in intensity and on maternal behavior in the postnatal period. To closely mimic the type of repeated painful stimulus experienced by preterm neonates (i.e., heelstick), neonatal rats aged day 2-14 were submitted daily to having their rear heels warmed to 34 degrees C and pricked (handled and pain, HP) or not (handled, H) with a needle. For the procedure, all pups were separated from their mothers for a total period of 15 min and reunited afterwards. Unhandled (UH) pups not subjected to daily maternal separation were used as controls. On days 6 and 12, litters from the HP and H groups were videotaped for 90 min upon return with the mother and maternal behavior was analyzed. Frequency of ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) were recorded during the procedure and upon return of pups with the mother. On day 15 and 20, rat pups from all groups were exposed to a 3-min ether vapor stressor or to an openfield for 10 min. Plasma ACTH and corticosterone concentrations were determined at 0, 5, 30, 60 and 120 min after stress onset. Our results show that repeated pain did not modify body weight of the pups, however, on day 6 of life, maternal pup grooming was increased significantly (P<0.05) in the HP group compared to the H group. Frequency of USV was not changed between H and HP rats either during the separation or after reunion with the mother. Plasma ACTH and corticosterone levels under basal or stimulated conditions were not different between UH, H and HP groups. However, the UH pups showed a tendency towards higher ACTH secretion after stress compared to H and HP groups. These results suggest that repeated pain during the first 2 weeks of life in the rat does not lead to significant changes in stress responsiveness in 2-week-old pups, but we suggest that changes in mother-pup interaction (increased grooming) might act as a buffer on the cumulative effect of pain on stress responsiveness.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗
PubMed2006

Does expectant mothers' unresolved trauma predict frightened/frightening maternal behavior? Risk and protective factors.

This prospective, longitudinal study explored the relationship between mothers unresolved/disorganized (U/d) attachment status and frightened/frightening (FR) maternal behavior and investigated possible variations due to whether mothers were U/d for loss versus abuse. The role of other factors that might predict maternal FR behavior was also examined. Pregnant women (n = 116) were administered the Adult Attachment Interview and later observed at home for 30-40 min interacting with their first-born 8-month-olds. Women classified as U/d with respect to loss and/or abuse displayed substantially higher levels of FR behavior with their infants than did mothers who were not classified as U/d (i.e., secure/autonomous, dismissing, or preoccupied), but these groups did not differ on maternal sensitivity. Mothers classified as U/d who had a secondary secure/autonomous classification also showed FR behavior but at low levels than U/d-insecure mothers. Independent of U/d status, mothers who had lost a parent, versus those who did not, more often displayed FR behavior with their infants. Finally, U/d loss fully mediated the association between loss of an attachment figure other than the parent and FR behavior, and partially mediated the relationship between loss of a parent and FR behavior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Importance of mother/young contact at parturition and across lactation for the expression of maternal behavior in rabbits.

We prevented mother/pup contact at parturition or across early or midlactation to investigate the importance of such interaction for maintaining material behavior in rabbits. When pup contact was prevented across lactation Days 1-7 or 11-17 (by anesthetizing multiparous mothers during the oxytocin-induced milk letdown; Experiment 1), nursing incidence was reduced to 40% and 83%, respectively, on the day following anesthesia withdrawal. Both groups also showed a decreased milk output, long latencies to initiate nursing, and several entrances into the nest box not associated with nursing. In Experiment 2 we prevented mother/litter contact at parturition to determine the specific role of pup contact at this time. We found a reduction in the incidence of nursing on postpartum Day 1 from 80% (in control primiparous mothers) to 33%. By contrast, 100% of both deprived and control multiparous mothers displayed nursing on Day 1. These mothers also showed the unusual behaviors found in Experiment 1 and an extemporaneous nest-building. We conclude that: (a) mother/young contact at parturition is crucial for establishing maternal responsiveness in primiparous does, (b) the experience acquired by raising a previous litter allows the retention of maternal responsiveness despite a lack of pup contact at parturition, (c) maternal responsiveness is maintained across early lactation by daily interaction with pups, and (d) interaction with pups across midlactation allows the finely tuned display of maternal behavior.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Individual differences in biobehavioral organization during problem-solving in toddlers: the influence of maternal behavior, infant-mother attachment, and behavioral inhibition on the attachment-exploration balance.

The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of maternal behavior, infant-mother attachment, and behavioral inhibition on the biobehavioral organization of toddlers during a primary non-attachment-related challenging context. In a sample of 76 toddlers, quality of attachment (secure, avoidant, ambivalent, disorganized) was assessed at 12 months. At 22 months, the subjects were observed in a challenging task according to [Matas et al. (1978) Child Development 49: 547-556], and salivary cortisol was assessed before and afterwards. Behavioral analyses included child task orientation and exploration, help seeking, proximity seeking, and attachment-exploration-balance as well as maternal supportive presence and quality of assistance. Behavioral inhibition was assessed from maternal reports. Findings from concurrent analyses indicate relations between toddler behavior and adrenocortical function and the importance of concurrent maternal support for toddler behavior. Longitudinal analyses showed that quality of attachment predicted task orientation, help seeking behavior, and the quality of the attachment-exploration-balance, while behavioral inhibition was related to approach to the task. In line with previous findings, adrenocortical activation was found only in insecure infants with high behavioral inhibition indicating the function of attachment security as a social buffer against less adaptive temperamental dispositions. Finally, within-group analyses indicated a social regulation pattern in secure toddlers while the behavior of insecure ones was additionally linked to behavioral inhibition and physiological reactivity.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1999

Maternal behaviors and cognitions during discipline episodes: a comparison of power bouts and single acts of noncompliance.

Maternal behaviors and cognitions within power bouts and single acts of noncompliance were compared by using 2 methodologies. Ninety mothers completed daily telephone interviews concerning their children's misbehavior for 12 days. Half of the mothers also completed a computerized simulation of 3 different power bouts, and the other half of the mothers completed a similar simulation of 3 sets of single noncompliance episodes. Mothers made behavioral intention choices and rated their perceptions of the child's behavior in the computer simulation. Results indicate that power bouts formed a special class of discipline episodes distinct from single noncompliance. Mothers reported more negative perceptions of the child as well as more aversion during extended power bouts. Discussion focuses on possible different types of power bouts and the need for theories of socialization to include the transactive nature of discipline episodes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Growth retardation and abnormal maternal behavior in mice lacking testicular orphan nuclear receptor 4.

Testicular orphan nuclear receptor 4 (TR4) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily for which a ligand has not yet been found. In vitro data obtained from various cell lines suggest that TR4 functions as a master regulator to modulate many signaling pathways, yet the in vivo physiological roles of TR4 remain unclear. Here, we report the generation of mice lacking TR4 by means of targeted gene disruption (TR4(-/-)). The number of TR4(-/-) pups generated by the mating of TR4(+/-) mice is well under that predicted by the normal Mendelian ratio, and TR4(-/-) mice demonstrate high rates of early postnatal mortality, as well as significant growth retardation. Additionally, TR4(-/-) females show defects in reproduction and maternal behavior, with pups of TR4(-/-) dams dying soon after birth with no indication of milk intake. These results provide in vivo evidence that TR4 plays important roles in growth, embryonic and early postnatal pup survival, female reproductive function, and maternal behavior.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Development of maternal behaviors in prepubertal rats at three ages: age-characteristic patterns of responses.

Individual 18-, 24-, or 30-day-old male and female Wistar prepubertal rats (juveniles) were continuously exposed to 3-8-day old pups in order to determine developmental differences in the expression of maternal and other behaviors during the process of sensitization. The results that emerged from this study are as follows: Maternal behaviors are neither consistent nor integrated in their expression prepubertally; exposure to pups facilitates the emergence of some maternal behaviors in juveniles more easily than others, e.g., retrieving and anogenital licking more than ventral crouching or nestbuilding; there are age-related differences in the expression of different maternal behaviors, e.g., 24-day-olds retrieve more than at other ages; in our strain, few, if any, gender differences are apparent in the expression of maternal behaviors prepubertally; juvenile play behaviors (charge, pounce) are related to retrieving behavior in the context of exposure to pups. Overall, the results suggest that maternal behaviors are distinct developmentally and probably involve different mechanisms in prepubertal animals.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2000

The stability of pregnancy intentions and pregnancy-related maternal behaviors.

OBJECTIVES: Our objectives were to characterize the stability of pregnancy intention and to examine whether stability is associated with the timing of prenatal care initiation, smoking during pregnancy, and breastfeeding. METHODS: We use a sample of women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) for whom information on pregnancy intention was collected both during pregnancy and after delivery. In bivariate analyses we compare outcomes and characteristics of women whose pregnancy intention changed between the prenatal and postpartum periods. With multivariate methods, we analyze the correlates of switching pregnancy intention as well as the association between switching and maternal behaviors. RESULTS: Women whose pregnancy intention changes between the two assessments are similar in marital status and socioeconomic background to those who report both during pregnancy and after delivery that the pregnancy is unintended. Disagreement during pregnancy between the parents' pregnancy intentions is the most important predictor of instability in the mother's pregnancy intention. Effects of unintended pregnancy on the timing of initiation of prenatal care, smoking during pregnancy, and breastfeeding based on reports after delivery are smaller than those based on reports during pregnancy, although differences are not statistically significant. Adverse effects of unintended pregnancy are greater when pregnancies reported by the mother to be unintended at either assessment are combined into a single category for unintended pregnancy. CONCLUSION: Unstable pregnancy intention may be a marker for adverse maternal behaviors related to infant health.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Parturition influences initial pup preferences at later onset of maternal behavior in primiparous rats.

Initial maternal responsiveness as a function of varying pup stimuli was assessed in primiparous Long-Evans rats. Pups were removed during parturition and the dams tested beginning 24 hr later. These dams were most likely to respond maternally towards newborn (0-2-day-old) rat pups (100%) and 6-8-day-old hamsters, which are the size of newborn rats (83.3%). In contrast, dams were significantly less likely to respond maternally towards newborn hamsters (50%) and 8-10-day-old rats (16.7%), pups which are half as large and twice as large, respectively, as newborn rats; indeed, dams were likely to attack these pups (33.3% and 25%, respectively). The maternal response (less than or equal to 1 hr) to dead newborn rats was similar to that towards live newborn rats, except that fewer dams retrieved dead pups rapidly (less than or equal to 1 min). Cesarean-delivered dams did not display higher maternal responsiveness towards 0-2 than towards 8-10-day-old rats. Further, whereas no parturition-experienced dam displayed infanticide towards newborn rats, 21.9% of primiparous Cesarean-delivered dams did. Thus, the exogenous and/or endogenous stimuli associated with parturition enhance selective maternal responsiveness and diminish infanticide towards pups the size of newborn rats.

Aggression↗
PubMed1984

Long-term alterations in the maternal behavior of neonatally undernourished rats.

The effect of early food and sensory deprivation on the maternal responsiveness of female rats was investigated. Animals that were neonatally undernourished by daily mother-litter separation (involving both food and sensory deprivation) showed significant deficits in maternal care, consisting of a reduction in nest rating, nursing time, and retrieving responses. Moreover, they exhibited exaggerated grooming and circling movements in comparison with the controls. Dams neonatally undernourished by the nipple-ligation of their mothers (a method that minimizes sensory deprivation) displayed less alterations in maternal behavior, and no significant differences in grooming and circling from the controls. The data suggest that nest rating, nursing time, and retrieving latency are closely related to food restriction, while the frequency of grooming and circling behavior are primarily associated with sensory deprivation. These results support the view that environmental influences related to food intake and sensory stimulation, interacting at critical stages of brain development, are essential for the maturation of adult behavioral patterns.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

How rapidly can maternal behavior affecting primary sex ratio evolve in a reptile with environmental sex determination?

Theoretical models identify maternal behavior as critical for the maintenance and evolution of sex ratios in organisms with environmental sex determination (ESD). Maternal choice of nest site is generally thought to respond more rapidly to sex ratio selection than environmental sensitivity of offspring sex (threshold temperatures) in reptiles with temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD, a form of ESD). However, knowledge of the evolutionary potential for either of these traits in a field setting is limited. I developed a simulation model using local climate data and observed levels of phenotypic variation for nest-site choice and threshold temperatures in painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) with TSD. Both nest-site choice and threshold temperatures, and hence sex ratios, evolved slowly to simulated climate change scenarios. In contrast to expectations from previous models, nest-site choice evolved more slowly than threshold temperatures because of large climatic effects on nest temperatures and indirect selection on maternally expressed traits. A variant of the model, assuming inheritance of nest-site choice through natal imprinting, demonstrated that natal imprinting inhibited adaptive responses in female nest-site choice to climate change. These results predict that females have relatively low potential to adaptively adjust sex ratios through nest-site choice.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Specific neurotoxin lesions of median raphe serotonergic neurons disrupt maternal behavior in the lactating rat.

Impairments in lactation after electrolytic lesions of the median raphe (MR) nucleus have been corrected by treatment with PRL. Specific serotonin neurotoxin lesions were used in the present study to determine whether decrements in litter growth after electrolytic lesions could be attributed to serotonergic neuron damage at the MR locus, and whether MR lesions (MRL) disrupted suckling-induced PRL release. Intracerebral microinjection of 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT) into the MR nucleus produced dose-related decrements in litter growth after either 4 micrograms (sham, 1.35 +/- 0.05; MRL, 1.04 +/- 0.05 g/pup X day; P less than 0.001) or 8 micrograms 5,7-DHT (sham, 1.35 +/- 0.06; MRL, 0.87 +/- 0.11 g/pup X day; P less than 0.001). Despite hypothalamic serotonin depletions of 15% and 55%, respectively, for the two doses of 5,7-DHT, there was no difference between sham and MRL animals in either basal or suckling-induced PRL release. When lesions were placed on day 1 of lactation (L) so that killing on day 7-L corresponded to the early maximal neurotoxin effect, MRL mothers still showed litter growth decrements (0.37 +/- 0.07; sham, 0.98 +/- 0.08 g/pup X day; P less than 0.001) and normal PRL values. When maternal behavior was examined, MRL animals exhibited a higher incidence of abnormal behaviors (failure to retrieve pups, cannibalism, and failure to initiate suckling during a 1-h test period; Fisher's exact P, Sham vs. MRL, less than 0.01, less than 0.05, and 0.15, respectively) than sham animals or animals with 5,7-DHT lesions in the dorsal raphe nucleus or superior colliculus. In addition, suckling behavior scores, determined from daily suckling behavior observations, were lowest in the MRL group and correlated with litter growth only in this group (r = 0.789; P less than 0.01). These data suggest that serotonergic elements in the MR nucleus play an obligatory role in maintaining normal maternal behavior during lactation, but they are not involved in suckling induced PRL release.

5,7-Dihydroxytryptamine↗
PubMed1982

Maternal behavior of rats is affected by hormonal condition of pups.

Previous research has found that maternal rats discriminate male from female offspring and provide more anogenital licking to males. Two experiments were performed to determine whether this discrimination is based on hormonal condition of young. It was found that 500 micrograms of testosterone, estradiol, or dihydrotestosterone injected on the day of birth into female pups led to their receiving an equivalent amount of maternal anogenital licking as males and significantly more than either oil or untreated females. The different steroids had similar effects. Maternal nonanogenital licking was not affected by sex or hormonal condition of pups, but it was significantly increased by injection per se. Effects on maternal behavior of hormonal condition or neonatal injection of young were apparent 1 and 9 days after injection.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Effects of maternal behavior on toddler behavior during separation.

The influence of maternal preseparation behavior on children's separation behavior was investigated. 72 (36 female, 36 male) 15-18-month-olds met with same-gender age-mates for an 8-min play and 4-min separation session. During the play period, mothers were instructed to interact extensively or minimally with their children, or were given no instructions except to interact normally. The noninstructed group was later divided into an extensive and a minimal group. During the separation period, the effect of previous amount of maternal interaction varied according to mothers' instructions and the gender of the children. Children with mothers who were instructed to interact minimally displayed distress sooner and played less with their age-mates than children with noninstructed minimally interacting mothers. Males with minimally interacting mothers spent more time unoccupied and less time playing alone than did females. The findings demonstrate the varying influence that different instructions to mothers may have on children's separation behavior.

Anxiety, Separation↗
PubMed1991

Interacting effects of oxazepam in late pregnancy and fostering procedure on mouse maternal behavior.

The present study was designed to assess the proactive effects of late pregnancy benzodiazepine (BDZ) treatment on maternal behavior in the postpartum period, using cross-fostering procedures to control for the role of changes produced prenatally in the offspring. Outbred CD-1 mouse dams were treated with either oxazepam (OX, 15 mg/kg PO twice/day on pregnancy days 12-16) or vehicle (VEH). After parturition, entire litters were exchanged either within treatments (in-fostered groups, IF) or between treatments (cross-fostered groups, CF), while additional litters were left undisturbed (un-fostered groups, UF). The behavior of lactating dams was observed in their home cages at 4, 8, and 12 days postpartum. Maternal responses, particularly nursing, were reduced in the OX-UF and OX-CF conditions and either normal or enhanced in the OX-IF condition. Correspondingly, locomotor/exploratory activity was markedly enhanced in the former conditions and close to the control level in the latter condition. In sum, the fostering variable appeared to determine whether pups raised by dams treated previously with BDZ receive either insufficient or exaggerated maternal care. This points to the need for a better understanding of mother/pup interactions in studies aimed at characterizing drug and toxicant effects on offspring development.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Mastery motivation and self-evaluative affect in toddlers: longitudinal relations with maternal behavior.

This study examined relations between maternal control and evaluative feedback during the second year of life and children's mastery motivation and expressions of self-evaluative affect a year later. Participants were 75 toddlers (35 girls, 40 boys) and their mothers. Maternal controlling behavior and evaluative feedback were examined while mothers taught their 24-month-olds a challenging task. Children's mastery motivation and expressions of self-evaluative affect were assessed during easy and difficult achievement-like tasks when they were 36 months old. Maternal evaluative feedback and control style at 24 months predicted children's shame, persistence, and avoidance of mastery activities at 36 months. Specifically, negative maternal evaluations at age two related to children's later shame, especially when feedback was linked to children's actions or products; positive maternal feedback overall, as well as corrective feedback, related to children's later persistence; mothers who engaged in more autonomy-supporting control with their 2-year-olds had children who were less likely to avoid challenging activities at age 3. Children's pride at 36 months was not predicted by mothers' behavior at 24 months.

Affect↗