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At least 1,153 records · Page 64Linked to original sources
PubMed2004

Heterotrimeric G proteins of the Gq/11 family are crucial for the induction of maternal behavior in mice.

Heterotrimeric G proteins of the G(q/11) family transduce signals from a variety of neurotransmitter receptors and have therefore been implicated in several functions of the central nervous system. To investigate the potential role of G(q/11) signaling in behavior, we generated mice which lack the alpha-subunits of the two main members of the G(q/11) family, Galpha(q) and Galpha(11), selectively in the forebrain. We show here that forebrain Galpha(q/11)-deficient females do not display any maternal behavior such as nest building, pup retrieving, crouching, or nursing. However, olfaction, motor behavior and mammary gland function are normal in forebrain Galpha(q/11)-deficient females. We used c-fos immunohistochemistry to investigate pup-induced neuronal activation in different forebrain regions and found a significant reduction in the medial preoptic area, the bed nucleus of stria terminalis, and the lateral septum both in postpartum females and in virgin females after foster pup exposure. Pituitary function, especially prolactin release, was normal in forebrain Galpha(q/11)-deficient females, and activation of oxytocin receptor-positive neurons in the hypothalamus did not differ between genotypes. Our findings show that G(q/11) signaling is indispensable to the neuronal circuit that connects the perception of pup-related stimuli to the initiation of maternal behavior and that this defect cannot be attributed to either reduced systemic prolactin levels or impaired activation of oxytocin receptor-positive neurons of the hypothalamus.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Influence of presence of perches during rearing on incidence of floor laying in broiler breeders.

Broiler breeders were reared in an all-litter blackout house on an 8-h photoperiod either in the presence or absence of perches (28 cm per bird) from hatching to 20 wk of age. The configuration of the perches resembled that on the standard 12-hole nest boxes in the curtain-sided slat-litter laying house to which birds were moved at 20 wk of age. Birds reared in the presence of perches exhibited a significantly reduced incidence of floor egg laying during each of two experiments. Birds reared with perches laid 3.6 vs. 8.6% floor eggs (Experiment 1) and 9.7 vs. 12.6% floor eggs (Experiment 2) when compared with birds reared without perches. The opportunity to learn perching behavior during rearing influences laying and nesting behavior in broiler breeders.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Differential effects of lipopolysaccharide on pup retrieving and nest building in lactating mice.

Behavioral symptoms of sickness that develop in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and proinflammatory cytokines include depressed locomotion, anorexia, and reduced social activities. The way maternal behavior is affected in response to cytokines has, however, not yet been investigated. We checked that lactating mice are sensitive to LPS by showing that LPS- (400 microg/kg, ip) injected mice ate and drank less than saline-injected mothers and displayed a decreased rectal temperature. At an ambient temperature of 22 degrees C, nest building was significantly decreased in LPS-treated mothers compared to saline-treated animals, whereas pup retrieving, while slower, was still present and globally as efficient as for saline-treated mice. In a second experiment, dams were either injected with physiological saline or LPS but were also exposed to a cold ambient temperature (6 degrees C) or kept in standard external condition (22 degrees C). LPS-treated mice exposed to cold expressed not only pup-retrieving but also nest-building activity. These differential results indicate that the behavioral expression of LPS-induced sickness depends on the priority of the behavior under consideration.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

The roles of stimuli from young, previous breeding experience, and prolactin in regulating parental behavior in ring doves (Streptopelia risoria).

In addition to stimulating crop "milk" formation in ring doves, prolactin (PRL) may promote the parental regurgitation behavior that transfers this "milk" to the young at the time of hatching. Although earlier studies suggest that previous breeding experience is an important modulator of PRL-induced parental regurgitation behavior in ring doves, the ways in which experience, hormones, and stimuli from young interact to promote parental behavior have not been well characterized in this species. In the first study, untreated, nonbreeding female doves with and without previous breeding experience were given 10 daily parental behavior tests (2 h/day) with a hungry 5- to 10-day-old foster squab. Experienced females exhibited a higher incidence of regurgitation behavior, defensive behavior, and crouching or sitting in the nest than did inexperienced females. In a second study, nonbreeding females were given 10 daily tests for parental behavior while they received sc injections of ovine PRL or vehicle. Prolactin reduced squab-directed aggression and increased the incidence of regurgitation feeding behavior of foster squabs in both experienced and inexperienced females. However, the average number of regurgitation feeding acts displayed by those PRL-treated females that showed the behavior was over eight times higher in experienced females than in inexperienced females. Previous experience also enhanced the stimulatory effects of PRL on defensive behavior and crouching or sitting in the nest. The parental behavior exhibited by nonbreeding, PRL-treated experienced females was qualitatively and quantitatively similar to that observed in normally breeding females during a single test with their own hungry 5- to 10-day-old squabs. These findings indicate that PRL and previous breeding experience both enhance the parental responsiveness of nonbreeding female doves and that under optimal hormonal, experiential, and squab exposure conditions, nonbreeding doves exhibit levels of parental activity that rival those of normally breeding parents.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Effects of septal-forebrain lesions on maternal aggression and maternal care.

Septal-forebrain lesions significantly increased the defensive reactions of lactating Long-Evans rats (n = 13) relative to nonlesioned control females. The lesions greatly enhanced defensive behaviors on a number of standard tests (e.g., responsiveness to humans and anesthetized conspecifics) while abolishing aggression toward intruding male conspecifics. The lesions also produced a striking disruption in maternal behavior as evidenced by absence of nest building, reduced litter weights, failure to retrieve, lick, or nurse pups, and increased cannibalization. While these results cannot be interpreted as indicating that maternal aggression is equivalent to offense, they are congruent with such a view. Certainly they are not supportive of a view that maternal aggression is primarily defensive. The lesion-induced abolition of maternal attack may have resulted from an inhibition of offensive tendencies by heightened defensiveness and/or reduced pup stimulation. There was no evidence that the lesion-induced impairment in maternal behavior resulted from a failure to sequence the individual behavioral acts comprising maternal behavior. Rather, all features of maternal care seemed to be greatly attenuated.

Aggression↗
PubMed1998

Hypothalamic neurons preferentially respond to female nest coo stimulation: demonstration of direct acoustic stimulation of luteinizing hormone release.

Avian vocalizations are generally understood to play a pivotal role in reproductive functions. The role of the hypothalamus in gonadotropin release in higher vertebrates including birds is well established. To date, however, a direct linkage between the neuronal processing of vocal input and the contingent luteinizing hormone (LH) response has not been demonstrated. In this study, using female ring doves, we recorded neuronal activity from hypothalamic nuclei that, as we have shown previously, receive acoustic inputs from the auditory thalamic relay. Concurrently with recording single-unit responses to stimulation with species-specific coo vocalizations, we sampled LH levels in blood from the pituitary veins. LH concentration in the plasma was significantly elevated in birds hearing species-typical coos but not in birds exposed to experimentally altered coos or white noise or in birds that received no vocal stimulation. We found two types of neurons in the preoptic and anterior hypothalamus that selectively responded to the female nest coo: excitatory units and inhibitory units. Among the excitatory neurons are units characterized by two bursts separated by a period of slow spiking or complete silence, in a pattern approximately corresponding temporally to the two-note coo. We designate them as female-nest-coo-specific units. Most neurons in the posterior hypothalamus were nonselective in their response. Female nest coo and male nest coo stimulation evoked an equal magnitude of discharge changes from responsive units in the preoptic-anterior hypothalamic area. We found, however, that the LH increment was three times greater for birds hearing female nest coos than for birds hearing male nest coos. These observations suggest that feature-detecting neurons such as the female-nest-coo-specific units are involved in gonadotropin-releasing hormone output. The present findings are consistent with the well established behavioral evidence that female nest coos mediate ovarian growth.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1985

Predictors of dominance in male Betta splendens.

The formation of dominance/subordinancy relations in pairs of male Siamese fighting fish was examined in six experiments. Dominant animals typically were those fish that built the largest nests and that attacked an image of a live, displaying male most intensely prior to combat. However, pretest performance on an operant task and reaction to an animal's own mirror image were not useful predictors of subsequent dominance. These findings are consistent with the suggestion that domesticated Bettas have a territorial social strategy that includes both nest-building and fighting behaviors.

Aggression↗
PubMed2002

Nocturnal activity in the green sea turtle alters daily profiles of melatonin and corticosterone.

In nature, green turtles (Chelonia mydas) can exhibit nocturnal activity in addition to their typically diurnal activity cycle. We examined whether nocturnal activity in captive and free-living green turtles altered daily plasma profiles of melatonin (MEL) and corticosterone (CORT). In captivity, diurnally active green turtles expressed distinct diel cycles in MEL and CORT; a nocturnal rise was observed in MEL and a diurnal rise was observed in CORT. However, when induced to perform both low- and high-intensity nocturnal activity, captive green turtles exhibited a significant decrease in MEL, compared to inactive controls. In contrast, plasma CORT increased significantly with nocturnal activity, and further, the relative increase in CORT was correlated with the intensity of the nocturnal behavior. In free-living green turtles that performed nocturnal activity including: nesting, mate searching, and feeding/swimming behaviors, plasma profiles in MEL and CORT exhibited relatively little, or no, daily fluctuation. Our findings demonstrate that nocturnal activity in green turtles is often associated with MEL and CORT profiles that resemble those measured during the day. We speculate that these conspicuous changes in MEL and CORT during nocturnal activity could either support or promote behaviors that enable acquisition of transient resources important to the survival and reproductive success of green turtles.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Presumptive relict reproductive behavior in small parrots.

Recent studies of experimentally elicited egg-care behaviors in three species of small, hole-nesting parrots, and of their evolutionary implications are reviewed. A suite of primarily nonthermal egg-care responses are adaptive for nesting in shallow terrestrial scrapes, rather than in cavities. These responses appear to be relics from times before hole-nesting began; as such, they may provide 'windows' into certain nonthermal aspects of terrestrial-nesting practices during ancestral stages. A suite of primarily thermal egg-care behaviors, elicited when nests are exposed to light and view, progress from mere initial curiosity, inspection, and manipulation of fostered eggs by nonbreeding parents, to more extensive manipulation and episodic concealment of a pair's own eggs by crouching over them, to crouching lengthily over eggs with some incubation but nighttime abandonment, to continuous 24-hour incubation. This progression may retrace certain aspects of major ancestral stages of thermal egg care. Stages of primary oocytes and follicles during ovarian development, and of maturing follicles during breeding cycles of some species, may retrace the phylogenetic progression of sizes of ancestral clutches and ripe follicles. These phenomena and the retention of many of the experimentally elicited egg-care responses are attributed largely to the highly conservative evolution of the central nervous system.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hippocampal volume is related to complexity of nesting habitat in Leach's storm-petrel, a nocturnal procellariiform seabird.

The hippocampal and telencephalon volumes of the nocturnal Leach's storm-petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa, n = 15) were compared with published data for food-storing and non-storing Passerines. The hippocampus to telencephalon ratio of Leach's storm-petrels is intermediate between food-storing and non-storing birds. Leach's storm-petrels taken from nesting burrows in wooded habitat had a larger relative hippocampal volume than those taken from burrows in an open meadow. Relative olfactory volume did not differ between woods and open-nesting storm-petrels. The larger relative hippocampal volume of storm-petrels may be associated with increased spatial demands of returning to their nests at night in the darker, more navigationally complex woods. It is not known whether the larger hippocampus in storm-petrels from the woods is due to selection on different subpopulations or whether experience in a more complex environment results in greater hippocampal volume. Hippocampal volume from the brain of one diurnal Procellariiforme, the northern fulmar (Fulmaris glacialis), fell within the range of non-storing species, which supports the view that hippocampal enlargement in the storm-petrel is related to the spatial demand of returning to the nest at night.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Testing the nest-homing abilities of a phytotelm-breeding frog, Chirixalus eiffingeri (Rhacophoridae).

We conducted a manipulative experiment to assess the homing of female Chirixalus eiffingeri to the nest. There were three experimental treatments and a control. For the control treatment, bamboo stumps were cut off at the base and reattached. In the first experimental treatment, when stumps were displaced 1 m, the proportion of stumps attended by females and the growth of tadpoles did not differ from the results of the control treatment, suggesting the 1-m stump displacement did not affect the nest homing of female frogs. In the second experimental treatment, when a bamboo stump was displaced 1 m and a new bamboo stump with tadpoles was put in its place, some females fed tadpoles in the displaced stump (3/12), but some fed tadpoles in the stump (3/12) at the original site. This finding suggests that the addition of a new stump confused the female frogs spatially, which resulted in females feeding the tadpoles in either stump. In the third experimental treatment, when a bamboo stump was displaced 1 m and a new stump without tadpoles was added at the original site, some female frogs fed tadpoles in the displaced stump (5/12) but some laid trophic eggs in the stump (4/12) at the original site, also indicating the female frogs were confused spatially. The overall results support the hypothesis that females rely on the spatial distribution of a nest stump, relative to other bamboo stumps, for nest homing to feed their offspring, and that stump location is an important cue to the nest homing of females.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1994

Role of vasoactive intestinal peptide in the control of prolactin-induced turkey incubation behavior. II. Chronic infusion of vasoactive intestinal peptide.

Hyperprolactinemia is associated with incubation behavior in avian species. Increased nesting activity is a major indication of incubation behavior. Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) stimulates prolactin (PRL) secretion from the anterior pituitary. The goal of this study was to induce incubation behavior by stimulating PRL through chronically infusing VIP into the third ventricle of turkey brains. In experiment 1, porcine VIP (pVIP) was infused into the median eminence at a rate of 60 ng/min for 7 days by means of osmotic pumps implanted s.c.. Plasma PRL increased significantly in the pVIP-treated turkeys (p < 0.001). Although egg laying was not affected by the pVIP infusion, the mean oviduct weight decreased (p < 0.057). In experiment 2, saline or pVIP (30 or 60 ng/min) was infused into the third ventricle of laying turkeys for 12 days. Both pVIP treatments increased plasma PRL for 9 days (p < 0.05). The 30-ng pVIP/min infusion decreased nesting activity, plasma LH, ovary and oviduct weight, hypothalamic GnRH I, and anterior pituitary VIP receptors (p < 0.1). However, ovine PRL infusion (20.8 ng/min) into the same turkey flock increased nesting activity (p < 0.01). In conclusion, pVIP does not induce incubation behavior in laying turkeys.

Animals↗