Variations in Maternal Behavior in C57BL/6J Mice: Behavioral Comparisons between Adult Offspring of High and Low Pup-Licking Mothers

Cort A. Pedersen · S. V. Vadlamudi · Maria L. Boccia · Sheryl S. Moy

63 citations0/0 files storedFrontiers in Psychiatry

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies Stress Responses and Cortisol

Abstract

The amount of maternal licking received by newborn rats affects their adult stress reactivity and maternal behavior. Mouse studies in which litters were cross-fostered between strains that exhibit high vs. low amounts of maternal behavior also suggest that rearing conditions affect adult outcomes. The current study is the first to compare within a single mouse strain (C57BL/6J) behavioral responses between adult animals reared by mothers that exhibited frequencies of pup-licking (PL) at the high end and the low end of the normal distribution within the strain. Maternal behaviors were coded during 10-s intervals every 3 min during five 1-h periods (two light, three dark cycle) on postpartum days 2, 4, 6, and 8 in 36 unrelated C57BL/6J mothers. The distribution of mean frequencies/h for PL, still crouched nursing, hovering over pups, self-grooming, and no contact with pups were determined. Offspring (6-12 weeks of age) from the eight mothers who exhibited the highest mean frequencies of PL and the seven mothers who exhibited the lowest PL frequencies underwent the following tests over three consecutive weeks: (1) elevated plus-maze (EPM) and 1-h open field on three successive days, (2) 3-h open field with an acute stressor (IP saline injection) at the 1-h time point, and (3) acoustic startle and prepulse inhibition. Females reared by low PL mothers exhibited significantly more time in the closed arms of the EPM, less locomotion, center time, and rearing during the first test in the open field, greater reactivity to an acute stressor, and reduced prepulse inhibition, an index of sensorimotor gating. Male offspring from low PL dams had reduced reactivity to an acute stressor, but no other altered performance in the behavioral tests. PL frequencies of C57BL/6J mothers appear to selectively alter behavior outcomes, primarily in female offspring.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 63 citations exist upstream.

References

2002Risky families: Family social environments and the mental and physical health of offspring.1995Adult attachment representations, parental responsiveness, and infant attachment: A meta-analysis on the predictive validity of the Adult Attachment Interview.2003Variations in maternal care in the rat as a mediating influence for the effects of environment on development 2008Epigenetic mechanisms and the transgenerational effects of maternal care 1999Attachment and caregiving: The caregiving behavioral system.2009Family relationships in childhood and common psychiatric disorders in later life: systematic review of prospective studies 2006Psychosocial Constraints on the Development of Resilience 2002Attachment in Rhesus Monkeys

Cited by

2013Implications of temporal variation in maternal care for the prediction of neurobiological and behavioral outcomes in offspring.

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.