Amazing stuff!
Notice again the gender bias and misandry here: The researchers apparently did not bother to investigate the male mouse/father. Is the father so irrelevant here?
"... Oxytocin has been shown to play a part in forming social bonds, including for mothers during grooming and nursing. To test the hormone’s role in babies, researchers separated 15-day-old mouse pups from their mothers for 3 hours. When they were reunited, the researchers measured ultrasonic vocalizations, noises that baby mice make to signal distress and catch their mothers’ attention. The team also used invasive and noninvasive methods to simultaneously measure the activity of oxytocin-producing neurons in the mice’s brains.
Indeed, vocalizations and oxytocin production increased upon the familial reunions, declining as the mother comforted the baby. But when mouse pups were reunited with an anaesthetized mama, their vocalizations stayed high. The researchers hypothesize that synchronized oxytocin release by the mothers and babies upon reunion helps regulate their emotions and strengthen social relationships. ..."
From the abstract of the Perspective:
"Abstract
For most mammals, social bonding between mothers and infants is a fundamental, evolutionarily conserved behavior that is crucial for offspring survival, emotional regulation, and the acquisition of social skills necessary for future interactions. Early-life experiences, especially maternal care, shape developmental trajectories, profoundly influencing cognitive, emotional, and social competencies into adulthood. In rodents, the neuropeptide oxytocin has been widely recognized for its central role in maternal behaviors toward infants such as nesting, grooming, and nursing.
Yet comparatively little is known about how oxytocin regulates infant behaviors toward mothers, particularly during episodes of maternal separation and reunion. ... Zelmanoff et al. report real-time changes in the activity of oxytocin-producing neurons in mouse pups during maternal separation and reunion, offering insights into how offspring actively contribute to maternal-infant bonding."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
The neuropeptide oxytocin has been shown to play a major role in driving parental behavior. However, its role in early life remains to be fully elucidated. Zelmanoff et al. investigated the role of oxytocin in modulating social behavior in mouse pups during separation and reunion with their mothers ... Pups separated from their mothers produced more ultrasonic vocalizations upon reunion, and the effect was modulated by the activity of oxytocin-expressing neurons. Pharmacological and optogenetic inhibition of these neurons attenuated ultrasonic vocalizations, suggesting that oxytocin plays a major role in determining social behavior during development. ...
Structured Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Oxytocin is a brain hormone that plays a critical role in regulating social behavior. Although much research has focused on how oxytocin supports adult behaviors such as pair-bonding and caregiving, far less is known about how this system functions during early life. The early postnatal period is a time of critical social interactions between infants and caregivers, and disruptions during this period may contribute to developmental disorders. Notably, expression of the oxytocin receptor peaks during infancy in both humans and mice, suggesting that this period represents a critical window of heightened sensitivity to oxytocin signaling. However, technical challenges have limited the study of the oxytocin system during this sensitive time of brain development. As a result, the role of oxytocin in shaping social behavior during infancy remains poorly understood.
RATIONALE
We set out to investigate how oxytocin influences pup behavior during a brief separation from the mother and littermates and subsequent reunion. We focused on vocal communication, as rodent pups emit ultrasonic vocalizations that signal distress but may also reflect social motivation and need. We combined detailed behavioral analysis with fiber photometry, pharmacological intervention, and a novel optogenetic strategy built on wireless silencing of oxytocin neurons in freely behaving pups—a technical advance that overcomes prior limitations in studying brain circuits during early life.
RESULTS
Pups that were acutely separated from their mother and littermates displayed a substantial increase in vocalizations upon reunion, especially when in close proximity to their mother. The rate and type of vocalizations were modulated by nipple attachment behavior. We found that hypothalamic oxytocin neurons increased their activity upon separation, and that this activity was tightly linked with the emission of vocalizations.
Blocking the oxytocin receptor in pups during separation reduced nipple attachment and altered the pattern of vocal behavior both during separation and reunion.
For increased temporal precision, we developed a new optogenetic method using a highly light-sensitive, red-shifted inhibitory opsin (eOPN3). This allowed us to wirelessly silence oxytocin neurons in untethered pups.
We found that silencing oxytocin neurons during separation disrupted vocal—but not nonvocal—behavior during both the separation and reunion.
CONCLUSION
Our findings reveal a specific role for oxytocin in shaping maternally directed behavior during infancy. We also introduce a noninvasive optogenetic approach for studying brain circuits in developing animals, opening new opportunities to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying early life social behavior. Our work emphasizes the need to gain a more nuanced understanding of oxytocin function and provides a technical platform for studying the social brain during its most formative stages."
Cries into ties (Perspective, no public access) "Oxytocin neurons in mouse pups regulate vocalization to maintain maternal bonds"
Oxytocin signaling regulates maternally directed behavior during early life (no public access)
Oxytocin signaling regulates maternally-directed behavior during early life (preprint, open access)
Graphical abstract
Figure 1:
Acute maternal separation increases maternally-directed behavior upon reunion.
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