Sensory Plasticity in Fathers

为了让婴儿生存，哺乳动物的父母，包括人类，必须对婴儿采取特定的行为，比如喂养、运送和保护他们。要做到这一点，父母必须对婴儿发出的气味和哭声等感官信号做出适当的反应。母亲和没有后代的雌性对这些线索的行为反应通常不同，母亲更容易被这些线索吸引，更有可能采取照顾行为。一些物种的母亲也表现出大脑对婴儿相关感官线索的反应方式的变化，因此母亲能够更好地检测和识别这些刺激。然而，关于父亲的大脑如何对来自婴儿的特定类型的感官信息作出反应，我们几乎一无所知。这项研究将评估父亲对婴儿的气味和哭声是否表现出不同的行为和大脑反应，以及与没有婴儿的男性相比，这种差异是否受到催产素的影响，催产素在婴儿护理和社会联系中起着重要作用。研究结果将提供关于父亲如何影响男性大脑和改变男性对婴儿的反应的新信息，这可能最终提高对人类父亲和孩子之间互动的理解。这些研究将为研究生和本科生提供培训，包括来自代表性不足人口的学生，并将作为在当地社区和在学校为有特殊需要的学生开展外联活动的基础。哺乳动物的父母必须改变自己的行为来满足后代的需要。这种行为可塑性是由影响父母对后代相关刺激的动机、认知和情感反应的神经过程的可塑性介导的。父母的感觉处理也会发生可塑性变化，从而增强他们检测和区分婴儿相关感官线索的能力。在母亲中，感觉功能的变化可能是由怀孕和哺乳期间发生的明显激素变化介导的；然而，亲子关系相关的感觉可塑性机制才刚刚开始被理解。例如，在单个感觉通路的多个部分中，协调的可塑性受到的关注很少，并且对不同感觉模式的刺激如何相互作用以决定神经和行为反应知之甚少。此外，我们对父亲的感觉可塑性几乎一无所知。本研究将使用双代加州小鼠（Peromyscus californicus）来验证以下假设：1)父亲身份改变雄性对婴儿刺激的行为和神经反应；2)这些影响通过同时暴露于多种方式的刺激而增强；3)催产素在调节父亲的感觉可塑性中起关键作用。幼崽的气味和发声将分别或同时呈现给雄性和非繁殖雄性，神经反应将使用免疫组织化学来量化许多大脑区域的即时早期基因产物Fos以及听觉皮层的电生理记录。催产素信号将被操纵药理学来确定其在父亲诱导的感觉可塑性中的作用。研究结果将为研究父亲大脑的可塑性提供独特的见解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In order for their infants to survive, mammalian parents, including humans, must engage in specific types of behavior toward infants, such as feeding, transporting, and protecting them. To do so, parents must respond appropriately to sensory cues from infants, such as odors and cries. Behavioral responses to these cues often differ between mothers and females without offspring, with mothers being more attracted to these cues and more likely to engage in caregiving behaviors. Mothers in some species also show changes in how the brain responds to infant-related sensory cues, so that mothers are better able to detect and identify these stimuli. However, almost nothing is known about how fathers’ brains respond to specific types of sensory information from infants. This research will evaluate whether fathers show different behavioral and brain responses to odors and cries from infants, compared to males without infants, and whether this difference is influenced by the hormone oxytocin, which plays a role in infant care and social bonding. The results will provide new information about how being a father affects males’ brains and changes how males respond to infants, which might ultimately improve understanding of interactions between human fathers and their children. These studies will provide training for graduate and undergraduate students, including students from underrepresented populations, and will be used as the basis for outreach activities in the local community and in schools for special-needs students.Mammalian parents must alter their behavior to meet the needs of their offspring. This behavioral plasticity is mediated by plasticity in neural processes influencing parents’ motivational, cognitive, and affective responses to offspring-related stimuli. Sensory processing, too, can undergo plastic changes in parents, enhancing their ability to detect and discriminate infant-related sensory cues. In mothers, changes in sensory function may be mediated by the pronounced hormonal shifts that occur during pregnancy and lactation; however, the mechanisms of parenthood-related sensory plasticity are only beginning to be understood. Coordinated plasticity in multiple parts of individual sensory pathways has received scant attention, for example, and little is known about how stimuli in different sensory modalities interact to determine neural and behavioral responses. Moreover, almost nothing is known about sensory plasticity in fathers. This research will use biparental California mice (Peromyscus californicus) to test the hypotheses that 1) fatherhood alters males’ behavioral and neural responses to stimuli from infants, 2) these effects are enhanced by simultaneous exposure to stimuli in multiple modalities, and 3) oxytocin plays a key role in mediating sensory plasticity in fathers.¬¬ Pup odors and vocalizations will be presented, both separately and simultaneously, to fathers and non-breeding males, and neural responses will be quantified using immunohistochemistry for the immediate-early gene product Fos in numerous brain regions as well as electrophysiological recordings in the auditory cortex. Oxytocin signaling will be manipulated pharmacologically to determine its role in fatherhood-induced sensory plasticity. Results will provide unique insights into plasticity of the paternal brain.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.