Topic: alloparental behaviour

In mice, parental behaviour is controlled by brain-wide circuits, the functional organisation of which is increasingly well understood. However, the relevance and function of these circuits in early life remains unknown. Here, we uncover the functional circuit architecture of parental circuits in juvenile mice and address whether they control alloparental social interactions at this age. We have observed that juvenile mice start to display spontaneous alloparental behaviour between postnatal day (P) 14 and 15, at levels similar to adult virgin females. C-Fos mapping revealed that this behaviou