小柯机器人

美国纽约大学Robert C. Froemke等研究人员合作发现婴儿哭声诱发母体催产素释放的神经回路。2023年9月20日，《自然》杂志在线发表了这项成果。

研究人员描述了一种将婴儿发声的听觉信息传递给小鼠催产素神经元的神经回路。研究人员对清醒母鼠的催产素神经元进行了活体电生理记录和光度测量，发现在幼鼠发出叫声时，催产素神经元会激活下丘脑催产素神经元。研究人员发现，催产素神经元会对幼崽的叫声做出反应，但不会对纯音调做出反应。这一回路控制着中枢催产素的释放和母性行为对叫声的反应，为母性内分泌网络整合来自后代的感觉线索提供了一种机制，以确保大脑状态的调节，从而实现高效的养育。

据介绍，催产素是一种神经肽，对母体生理和育儿非常重要，包括分娩和哺乳期间的排乳。吸吮会触发催产素的释放，但其他感觉线索，特别是婴儿的哭声，会提高初为人母者的催产素水平，这表明哭声能激活下丘脑催产素神经元。

附：英文原文

Title: Neural circuitry for maternal oxytocin release induced by infant cries

Author: Valtcheva, Silvana, Issa, Habon A., Bair-Marshall, Chloe J., Martin, Kathleen A., Jung, Kanghoon, Zhang, Yiyao, Kwon, Hyung-Bae, Froemke, Robert C.

Issue&Volume: 2023-09-20

Abstract: Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that is important for maternal physiology and childcare, including parturition and milk ejection during nursing1,2,3,4,5,6. Suckling triggers the release of oxytocin, but other sensory cues—specifically, infant cries—can increase the levels of oxytocin in new human mothers7, which indicates that cries can activate hypothalamic oxytocin neurons. Here we describe a neural circuit that routes auditory information about infant vocalizations to mouse oxytocin neurons. We performed in vivo electrophysiological recordings and photometry from identified oxytocin neurons in awake maternal mice that were presented with pup calls. We found that oxytocin neurons responded to pup vocalizations, but not to pure tones, through input from the posterior intralaminar thalamus, and that repetitive thalamic stimulation induced lasting disinhibition of oxytocin neurons. This circuit gates central oxytocin release and maternal behaviour in response to calls, providing a mechanism for the integration of sensory cues from the offspring in maternal endocrine networks to ensure modulation of brain state for efficient parenting.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06540-4

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06540-4

Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html