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Basic Protocols to Study Parental Behavior in Rats

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Animal Models of Reproductive Behavior

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 200))

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Abstract

Maternal care is an affiliative, motivated, and complex social behavior that has been conserved through evolution to ensure the survival of the offspring and promote their growth, development, and maturation. In the rodent, maternal behavior is primed during pregnancy by hormonal changes and subsequent neurochemical responses and is activated and maintained after parturition by sensorial and social stimuli from the pups. But taking care of the infant—or parental behavior—can also be induced by nonhormonal factors in any biologically related or unrelated individual. Although these factors act on the “maternal circuit,” other neural systems are involved in the fine-tuning of this behavior, which allows the mother to be sensitive to the pups’ cues, interpret their needs, and provide them with fast, and contingent care. The peripartum period is a critical time for the mother–infant dyad. On the one hand, the maternal brain responds actively to the mother–infant interaction, modifying its neural structure and functionality (neuronal plasticity). On the other hand, the pup’s brain is altered by this interaction through epigenetic processes; such epigenetic alterations persist across the lifespan of the individual and may even be transmitted to the next generation (transgenerational transmission). Animal models are essential for understanding the complexity and flexibility of neurobehavioral processes that underlie parental responsiveness. In this chapter, our aim is to describe an array of basic behavioral protocols that are used to study parental behavior in the laboratory rat, the species most widely used to study neurobiological, neuroendocrine, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral bases of parental behavior.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Kurt L. Hoffman for editing this manuscript, Angel Azael Melo Baza for the design and elaboration of the figures, and Laura García for her technical assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación en Reproducción Animal, CINVESTAV, Laboratorio Tlaxcala, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico

    Angel I. Melo

  2. Centro de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Mexico

    Mario Caba

  3. Departamento de Biología Celular y Fisiología, Unidad Foránea Tlaxcala, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Tlaxcala, Mexico

    Francisco Castelán & Margarita Martínez-Gómez

  4. Centro Tlaxcala de Biología de la Conducta, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico

    Francisco Castelán & Margarita Martínez-Gómez

Authors
  1. Angel I. Melo
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  2. Mario Caba
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  3. Francisco Castelán
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  4. Margarita Martínez-Gómez
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Neurobiologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Queretaro, Querétaro, Mexico

    Raúl G. Paredes

  2. Instituto de Neurobiología Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Querétaro, Mexico

    Wendy Portillo

  3. Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Juriquilla, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Querétaro, Mexico

    Marie Bedos

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© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

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Melo, A.I., Caba, M., Castelán, F., Martínez-Gómez, M. (2023). Basic Protocols to Study Parental Behavior in Rats. In: Paredes, R.G., Portillo, W., Bedos, M. (eds) Animal Models of Reproductive Behavior. Neuromethods, vol 200. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3234-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3234-5_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-3233-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-3234-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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