BRAIN FUNCTION IN SOCIAL AFFILIATION AND PARENTAL MOTIVATION

这个子项目是众多研究子项目之一

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. To investigate brain pathways involved in mate affiliation and parental motivation. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is carried out on awake male marmosets while they are presented with isolated scents from (familiar vs. unfamiliar) adult females and infants. We have developed methods to present the olfactory stimuli to the male marmosets from both female scents (Ziegler et al., 2005) and from infant scents. Seven male marmosets were presented with scents from their own infants during a 10-minute presentation while the males were in isolation. Males were bled 30 minutes after the onset of the presentation and serum was analyzed for testostereone and cortisol. In a crossover design, males were presented with either their own infants' scents or a vehicle control scent. Males showed a significant decrease in testosterone levels after interacting with the infant scent whereas testosterone following presentation of the control stimulus did not alter from normal testosterone levels for male adult marmosets. Cortisol levels were not significantly different between the infant scent and the vehicle control. These data indicate that male marmosets are responsive to infant stimuli and that the scent stimuli are processed in the brains of the males. This research used WNPRC Animal Services.