Ready for motherhood. Chemosensory, socio-sexual and motivational brain networks adjust their activity during pregnancy

  1. Navarro Moreno, Cinta
Supervised by:
  1. Fernando Martínez-García Director
  2. María José Sánchez Catalán Co-director

Defence university: Universitat Jaume I

Fecha de defensa: 22 November 2022

Committee:
  1. Francisco Eliseo Olucha Bordonau Chair
  2. Vicente Herranz Pérez Secretary
  3. Roser Nadal Alemany Committee member

Type: Thesis

Teseo: 774593 DIALNET lock_openTDX editor

Abstract

Maternal behaviour is instinctively induced by pups during late gestation and postpartum, when hormonal changes elicit increased motivation towards offspring and aggressiveness towards potentially infanticidal intruders. In this thesis, we study the possible role of pup odours/pheromones in the attraction they cause in dams. To do so, we analyse the brain activation induced by pups and by non-social control objects (buttons), and the changes that occurred in this activation at the end of pregnancy. We focus on the chemosensory systems (olfactory and vomeronasal) including the vomeronasal organ, demonstrating changes in sensory processing during motherhood. We also analyse the activity patterns in the circuits of social behaviour (socio-sexual brain network) and those of motivation. The results indicate that gestation increases motivation towards pups and decreases motivation towards non-social objects (buttons).