Topic: maternal arousal

Maternal motivation enables heightened responsivity of mothers towards offspring. While this motivational state is critical to infant survival, little is known about its regulation. Previous work in maternal rodents demonstrates that lesioning ventral tegmental area (VTA) neurons disrupts maternal motivated behaviors; and that these behaviors are restored by manipulating pup sensory salience (i.e., by increasing pup cries) and maternal states (Hansen 1994 Physiol Behav). Additionally, the neurohormone oxytocin is known to promote VTA-mediated maternal behaviors including infant approach and nu