Motherhood, Oxytocin and the Medial Prefrontal Cortex

母性、催产素和内侧前额皮质

• 批准号: 8191697
• 负责人: BENEDETTA J LEUNER
• 金额: $ 24.34万
• 依托单位: OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-09-02 至 2014-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8191697
• 关键词: Address; Adult; Age; Anxiety; Architecture; Attention; Attenuated; Award; Behavior; Behavioral; Behavioral Assay; Brain; Brain region; Caring; Cognition; Cognitive; Data; Dendritic Spines; Endocrine; Environment; Estrogens; Evaluation; Excitatory Synapse; Exhibits; Female; Foundations; Glucocorticoids; Goals; Hormonal; Hormonal Change; Hormones; Human; Impaired cognition; Institution; Instruction; Journals; Learning; Letters; Link; Measures; Medial; Mediating; Memory; Mental Depression; Mental disorders; Mood Disorders; Mothers; Neuropeptides; Neurosciences; Ohio; Outcome; Oxytocin; Oxytocin Receptor; Parenting behavior; Phase; Play; Postpartum Period; Predisposition; Prefrontal Cortex; Process; Publishing; Rattus; Regulation; Research; Research Personnel; Research Project Grants; Research Proposals; Rewards; Rodent; Role; Site; Staging; Stress; Structure; Synaptic plasticity; Testing; Time; TimeLine; Universities; Update; Vertebrates; Woman; Work; adverse outcome; behavior measurement; brain behavior; cognitive function; density; design; experience; flexibility; hippocampal pyramidal neuron; improved; insight; male; motherhood; neuronal growth; offspring; programs; relating to nervous system; research study; resilience; stress management; way finding

The postpartum period is accompanied by dramatic clianges in hormones, including increased glucocorticoid and decreased estrogen levels. In virgin rodents, high glucocorticoid and low estrogen levels have been associated with diminished dendritic architecture and fewer dendritic spines, sites of excitatory synapses, in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). This hormonal environment has also been shown to negatively impact behaviors mediated by the mPFC, by impairing cognitive function and enhancing anxiety. Despite the known detrimental effects of high glucocorticoid and low estrogen levels, mothers with this hormonal profile exhibit attenuated anxiety. In addition, research conducted during the K99 phase has shown that dendritic spine density is increased in the mPFC of mother rats and that this effect coincides with improved attention and behavioral flexibility, functions that depend on the mPFC. However, the factors that shield the maternal mPFC from the potentially damaging postpartum hormonal milieu remain unknown. The neuropeptide oxytocin has been shown to buffer stress hormone effects on the brain and behavior and may play a role in protecting mPFC structure and function during motherhood. To investigate this, manipulations of oxytocin receptors, cognitive, anxiety, and maternal behavioral assays and measures of structural plasticity will be employed. The results of these studies will inform us ofthe neural and behavioral alterations associated with motherhood and the role that oxytocin may play in these changes. This work serves as the independent portion of the K99/R00 award and will provide the foundation for a research program focused on elucidating the mechanisms of brain resilience.

产后时期伴随着激素的剧烈变化，包括糖皮质激素的增加