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At least 379 records · Page 21Linked to original sources
PubMed1997

Postnatal pup brain dopamine depletion inhibits maternal behavior.

The interactions between dams and their pups and among siblings were investigated in litters with (a) all pups depleted of striatal dopamine by 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA on PND3), (b) all pups treated with vehicle, or (c) half of the pups depleted of dopamine and the other half treated with vehicle. On PND10, two sets of four pups from each litter were videotaped in a novel environment with the dam:pup and maternal behaviors were later scored by blind observers. We observed a 70% decrease in striatal dopamine in 6-OHDA-treated pups but found no effect of treatment on pup weight gain. Dams with some or all DA-depleted pups (a) were slower to retrieve a pup and establish a nest, (b) retrieved pups less frequently, and (c) spent less time huddling with pups than dams with only vehicle-treated pups. When compared with DA-depleted pups in homogeneous litters, DA-depleted pups in mixed litters were less hyperactive and spent more time huddling with other pups than in isolation. These results suggest that DA-depleted pups receive compromised maternal care but can benefit from interactions with normal siblings.

Animals↗
PubMed2007

Maternal behavior, infant development, and the question of developmental resources.

The natural development of maternal and infant behavior occurs in a dyad characterized by synchrony and reciprocal interactions. Major concepts used to describe and analyze this synchrony were reviewed. It was concluded that the dyad undergoes a developmental progression in which each part of the dyad is both a developing organism and a reliably changing milieu forming part of the extended inheritance of the other. The reliability of inherited resources is rooted in interactions essential to life, such as those used to transfer metabolic needs to dependent offspring; to stimulation (incidentally but necessarily) associated with life-supporting mechanisms; and to perceptual, motor, or learning mechanisms used to extract specific resources from the available milieu. The diverse resources in extended inheritance contribute to the construction of new traits through opportunistic shaping or regulating interactions among them that are unrestricted by their function at earlier stages.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

[Mental development of young children in maternal behavior disorders].

To study an interaction between abnormal maternal behaviour and mental development of up to 3 year old children, 26 pregnant women and 26 their children have been studied. The sample included 10 mentally healthy women and 16 women with different psychopathology--mental diseases (11) and personality disorders (5). According to their maternal behaviour, 4 types--reliable, anxious, depriving and neglecting--of mothers were singled out. The children of reliable mothers developed without any pathology and those of anxious ones exhibited delayed development with dependence on adults, anxious ambivalent attachment and inhibited type of personality peculiarities. The children of depriving mothers had deprived syndrome, hysteric reactions, indifferent attachment and personality features of hysterical type. The neglected children revealed pronounced deprived syndrome, hysterical reactions and ill-will terms with other people.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

[Physiological and sensorial determinism of maternal behavior in mammals].

In mammals, the development of maternal behaviour is generally controlled by neuroendocrine factors followed by sensory factors. Whereas the dynamics of the steroid balance at parturition are of primary importance in non-human mammals, stimulation of the uterine tract during the expulsion of the foetus is the key-factor in ungulates. This induces a cascade of physiological events and particularly the activation of the oxytocinergic system. The increase in prolactin release appears to be important only in rodents. Activation of the opiate system induces inhibitory effects in rodents and facilitatory effects in ungulates and, in rodents, the medial preoptic area is the central key structure of hormonal action. In women, no correlation exists between hormonal levels and maternal attitudes either during pregnancy or in the post-partum period. Physiological factors enhance receptivity to stimuli coming from the neonate and this allows the female to display maternal behaviour beyond this critical period. Odours facilitate the organisation of both maternal and infantile behaviour and are involved in individual recognition for both. Olfaction may also participate in the regulation of mother-young interactions in humans.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Peripheral olfactory deafferentation of the primary olfactory system in rats using ZnSO4 nasal spray with special reference to maternal behavior.

A modified method of applying ZnSO4 to the olfactory mucosa is described. Treated rats experienced severe nasal congestion that cleared within 24 h; more persistent morbidity did not occur. Nonpregnant females observed with male intruders 24 h following ZnSO4 showed no alterations in behavior other than a reduction in anogenital sniffing, indicating that they were not hypoactive or irritable. In other experiments, lactating females were observed in a hole-board apparatus; 2 days posttreatment anosmia was confirmed in 80% of bilaterally ZnSO4-treated females by the absence of preference for pup odors. After bilateral but not unilateral ZnSO4 treatment, initially activity scores and nose pokes were equivalent in all groups, but later they both were lower than in controls, probably due to a more rapid habituation to the novel apparatus. We conclude that intranasal ZnSO4 by small-volume spray is a useful experimental tool.

Administration, Intranasal↗
PubMed1986

[Induced maternal behavior in the domestic hen. Influence of partial or total separation on the maintenance of maternal responsiveness].

The influence of direct physical contact on maintaining maternal responsiveness in induced adult hens was investigated using a separation procedure. Partial separation from chicks causes a significant decline of the clucking rate in hens, this response however does not disappear as in the case of total separation. The possibility for physical contact between hen and chicks contributes largely, but not uniquely, to maintain maternal responsiveness in the domestic hen.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Social regulatory effects of infant nondistress vocalization on maternal behavior.

This study investigated the social regulatory function of infant nondistress vocalization in modulating maternal response. Thirteen infants and their mothers were observed weekly in a face-to-face interaction situation from 4 to 24 weeks. After the occurrences and the speech quality of infant nondistress vocalization were identified, maternal contingent responses to these vocalizations were also coded. Each responsive action was further classified by the change processes involved. Results showed that it was the occurrence of infant nondistress vocalization rather than its speech quality that regulated maternal verbal response concurrently and that infant nondistress vocalization was more likely to be synchronized with maternal facial expression and touch than with head movements. Developmentally, significant individual differences were found in the linear growth patterns of overall maternal response and within the individual modalities when responding to speechlike vocalizations.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Predicting cognitive-language and social growth curves from early maternal behaviors in children at varying degrees of biological risk.

Growth modeling was used to examine the relation of early parenting behaviors (averaged across 6 and 12 months) with rates of change in children's cognitive-language and social response and initiating skills assessed at 6, 12, 24, and 40 months. Groups of full-term (n = 112) and very low birth weight children, divided into medically low (n = 114) and high risk (HR; n = 73), were included to evaluate whether children who vary in their rate of development are influenced in different ways by early parenting styles. Parenting behaviors that were sensitive to children's focus of interest and did not highly control or restrict their behaviors predicted greater increases and faster rates of cognitive-language and social development, with relations stronger for the HR versus the other two groups. These maternal behaviors may provide the support all infants need to establish an optimal early foundation for later development and the specific support HR children need to learn in spite of early attentional and organizational problems.

Adult↗