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How is the mother-infant bond formed and maintained?
Across mammalian species, the survival of immature young depends on parental care (provision of food, warmth and protection). Whereas the capacity to provide care is highly conserved across sex and species, caregiving behavior is not typically a default response to young conspecifics. The experience of interacting with infants, particularly in combination with the hormonal events of birth, contributes to the formation of the parent-infant bond, which maintains caregiving responses across time and context.
At the neural systems level, a conclusive body of work supports the idea that a highly conserved neural system regulates responses toward infants in all mammalian species studied. The medial preoptic area (MPOA) of the anterior hypothalamus is the central site for parental care. The MPOA coordinates caregiving behaviors by inhibiting neural pathways involved in infant avoidance/attack and activating pathways involved in approach.
We investigate mechanisms of molecular plasticity within these circuits that allow infant stimuli to reliably elicit caregiving behaviors in parents. Long-lasting changes in the way a neuron responds to a stimulus can be mediated by epigenetic modifications. These epigenetic modifications alter chromatin (DNA and associated histone proteins) and impact the way in which genes are expressed. This level of gene expression regulation exists above the genome, hence the term epigenetic.
Laboratory moms gone wild: Maternal behavior in a semi-natural context
How do new mothers adapt their behavior in different environmental contexts and how do these altered patterns of care promote the adaptive development of offspring? By comparing caregiving responses in a standard rat cage with an outdoor, semi-natural environment roughly 3000X its size, we are exploring how complex experiences shape mothering behavior and offspring development.
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Our ultimate goal is to address questions about the role of epigenetic mechanisms in the regulation of maternal behavior within dynamic (semi-natural) versus static (standard laboratory) environments.
Effects of early sensory experience on cortical development
This project examines the impact of distinct early-life sensory experiences (olfactory and somatosensory) on cortical connectivity, as well as the development of complex social behaviors that rely heavily on the impacted senses. We are currently investigating the molecular pathways that give rise to altered neocortical development.
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