Topic: motivation circuitry

Pups-naïve adult mice display two opposite responses when they are exposed to pups for the first time. Females rapidly display maternal behavior (MB); however, males display infanticidal behavior (IB). In previous studies, we found a different pattern of expression of c-Fos in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and nucleus accumbens (NAcc) when females and males displayed MB and IB respectively for the first time.We investigated if NMDA-induced lesions in the mPFC or the NAcc inhibited MB or IB in pups-naïve adult female and male mice. Furthermore, we investigated whether 6-OHDA-induced lesio