Like mothers, fathers play a vital role in the development of the brain and behavior of offspring in mammals with biparental care. Unlike mothers, fathers do not experience the physiological processes of pregnancy, parturition, or lactation before their first contact with offspring. Whether pup exposure can induce the onset of paternal behavior and the underlying neural mechanisms remains unclear. By using Slc:ICR male mice exhibiting maternal-like parental care, the present study found that repeated exposure to pups for six days significantly increased the total duration of paternal behavior and shortened the latency to retrieve and care for pups. Repeated pup exposure increased c-Fos-positive neurons and the levels of dopamine- and TH-positive neurons in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). In addition, inhibition of dopamine projections from the ventral tegmental area to the NAc using chemogenetic methods reduced paternal care induced by repeated pup exposure. In conclusion, paternal behavior in virgin male ICR mice can be initiated by repeated pup exposure via sensitization, and the dopamine system may be involved in this process.
Pubmed ID: 34389426 RIS Download
Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.
Software Java tool for quantitative analysis of behavior. Used to address any theoretical problem that requires complex sequence of actions to be scored by human observer. Runs on microcomputer providing Java Virtual Machine[TM] and has been tested on Windows[TM] and Macintosh[TM] systems. Legacy version (version 0.9) works on older systems (Macintosh OS-9 and Windows-98), while Version 1.0 works well on Macintosh OS-X and Windows XP systems. JWatcher Video works best on Windows XP systems and has reduced functionality running in Macintosh OS-X. JWatcher-Palm can be used to acquire data on Palm OS[TM] equipped device and analyze it on your main computer.
View all literature mentionslaboratory mouse with name Slc:ICR from MGI.
View all literature mentions