Summary: Observing experienced mothers gather and care for pups trains virgin female mice to copy that parenting behavior. In these virgins, watching maternal care triggers oxytocin release in the brain, preparing them biologically to perform maternal tasks.
Source: NYU
New research shows that when mother mice gather their pups into the nest, other female mice without pups learn to perform that same parenting task simply by watching.
The study found that visual and auditory exposure to maternal caregiving induces oxytocin release in virgin female mice, which in turn shapes their subsequent maternal behavior even before they have offspring of their own.
Researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine conducted continuous video monitoring of female mice interacting with litters and with virgin females, while simultaneously recording electrical activity in brain regions linked to oxytocin production and response.
Building on earlier work that identified oxytocin as a key modulator of nursing and maternal behaviors, the team identified a distinctive social interaction: experienced mothers actively guided virgin females into the nest and demonstrated pup retrieval. The researchers describe this as a form of social tutoring that had not been previously documented.
Within 24 hours of these interactions, most virgin females began to retrieve pups into the nest, even when the experienced mother was not present. Remarkably, virgins also acquired the pup-retrieval behavior after only viewing a mother perform the task through a transparent barrier — without direct physical contact.
Neural recordings showed that both seeing the mother retrieve pups and hearing the vocal distress of pups outside the nest activated oxytocin-producing neurons in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the virgin females. This PVN activation correlated with the virgins’ adoption of caregiving behavior.
When the researchers chemically disrupted visual or auditory pathways, or blocked oxytocin signaling in the PVN, virgin mice failed to learn pup care. These interventions demonstrate that sensory input and oxytocin release are both necessary for the social transmission of maternal behavior.
“Our study shows that in mice the best way to be a mom is to watch and learn from an experienced mom,” said senior investigator Robert Froemke, PhD, of the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at NYU Langone Health. He added that the team believes comparable mechanisms could operate in humans and that the findings support the practical benefits of parenting instruction.
Froemke noted the research team plans to investigate whether similar tutoring interactions occur between father mice and virgin males. He also emphasized a broader role for oxytocin, suggesting the hormone helps the brain attend to and adapt to social cues that demand caregiving or other affiliative responses.
The study analyzed nearly 5,000 hours of video collected over six months, documenting interactions among several dozen mother mice, their litters, and co-housed virgin females. These long-term observations, paired with targeted neural recordings, allowed the researchers to link specific social experiences with changes in brain activity and behavior.
Funding: The research was supported by multiple NIH grants (R01 HD088411, R01 DC12557, U19 NS107616, K99 MH106744, F32 MH112232, T32 MH019524, P30 CA016087, P41 EB017183), Japan’s Strategic Program for Brain Sciences (grant 16K15698), and scholarships from the McKnight Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Key contributors at NYU Langone include lead investigator Ioana Carcea, MD, PhD (now at Rutgers University), senior investigator Robert Froemke, PhD, and co-investigators Naomi Lopez Caraballo; Bianca Marlin, PhD; Rumi Ooyama; Joyce Mendoza Navarro; Maya Opendak, PhD; Veronica Diaz; Luisa Schuster; Maria Alvarado Torres; Harper Lethin; Daniel Ramos; Jessica Minder; Sebastian Mendoza; Chloe Bair-Marshall; Grace Samadjopoulos; Annegret Falkner, PhD; Dayu Lin, PhD; Adam Mar, PhD; Youssef Wadghiri, PhD; and Regina Sullivan, PhD. Additional collaborators include Justin Riceberg, PhD (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai); Shizu Hidema, PhD; Katsuhiko Nishimori, PhD (Fukushima Medical University); Takefumi Kikusui, PhD; and Kazutaka Mogi, PhD (Azabu University).
About this behavioral neuroscience research news
Author: David March
Source: NYU Langone
Contact: David March – NYU Langone
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Open access. “Oxytocin neurons enable social transmission of maternal behaviour” by Ioana Carcea, Naomi López Caraballo, Bianca J. Marlin, Rumi Ooyama, Justin S. Riceberg, Joyce M. Mendoza Navarro, Maya Opendak, Veronica E. Diaz, Luisa Schuster, Maria I. Alvarado Torres, Harper Lethin, Daniel Ramos, Jessica Minder, Sebastian L. Mendoza, Chloe J. Bair-Marshall, Grace H. Samadjopoulos, Shizu Hidema, Annegret Falkner, Dayu Lin, Adam Mar, Youssef Z. Wadghiri, Katsuhiko Nishimori, Takefumi Kikusui, Kazutaka Mogi, Regina M. Sullivan & Robert C. Froemke. Published in Nature.
Abstract
Oxytocin neurons enable social transmission of maternal behaviour
Maternal care, including caregiving by non-biological parents, is essential for offspring survival. Oxytocin released from neurons in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) plays a central role in maternal behavior. In mice, oxytocin supports plasticity in the auditory cortex that facilitates recognition of pup distress calls.
How initial parental experiences drive hypothalamic signaling and cortical plasticity to produce reliable parental care has been unclear. To address this, the researchers continuously monitored behavior of virgin female mice co-housed with an experienced mother and her litter, while recording activity of PVN neurons, including oxytocin-producing cells.
The recordings showed that PVN oxytocin neurons were activated when experienced mothers enlisted virgins into caregiving by shepherding them into the nest and demonstrating pup retrieval. Visual observation of maternal retrieval alone activated PVN oxytocin neurons in virgins and promoted alloparenting behavior.
These findings demonstrate that rodents can acquire maternal behavior through social transmission. Endogenous oxytocin release provides a mechanism by which adult caregivers’ brains adapt to infant needs, enabling rapid learning of complex caregiving behaviors.