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Author Notes:

Correspondence: Fadao Tai, taifadao@snnu.edu.cn

Author contributions: F.T. designed research; Z.H., L.J.Y., L.Liu, J.L., and F.T. performed research; L.Z., W.H., Y.X., Z.L., and R.J. contributed unpublished reagents/analytic tools; Z.H., L.Z., W.H., X.Z., H.M., and Y.L. analyzed data; L.J.Y., L.Li, F.T., and Z.H. wrote the paper.

Acknowledgements: We thank X. Xu (Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences) for critical reading of the manuscript.

Disclosures: The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Research Funding:

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China Grants 31670421, 31970424, and 31901082;

Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province, China, Grant 2020JQ-412;

China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Grant 2019M653534;

Fundamental Research Funds for Central University Grants GK201903065, GK202007008, and GK202103066.

L.J.Y. was also supported by National Institutes of Health Grants P50MH100023 and R01MH112788.

Keywords:

  • Science & Technology
  • Life Sciences & Biomedicine
  • Neurosciences
  • Neurosciences & Neurology
  • dopamine
  • nucleus accumbens
  • oxytocin
  • paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus
  • paternal behavior
  • ventral tegmental area
  • Medial preoptic area
  • Maternal behavior
  • Individual differences
  • Accumbent oxytocin
  • Neural responses
  • Sexual stimuli
  • Social reward
  • Receptor
  • Neurons
  • Infant

Paraventricular Nucleus Oxytocin Subsystems Promote Active Paternal Behaviors in Mandarin Voles

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Journal Title:

Journal of neuroscience

Volume:

Volume 41, Number 31

Publisher:

, Pages 6699-6713

Type of Work:

Article | Final Publisher PDF

Abstract:

Paternal care plays a critical role in the development of brain and behaviors in offspring in monogamous species. However, the neurobiological mechanisms, especially the neuronal circuity, underlying paternal care is largely unknown. Using socially monogamous male mandarin voles (Microtus mandarinus) with high levels of paternal care, we found that paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) to ventral tegmental area (VTA) or nucleus accumbens (NAc) oxytocin (OT) neurons are activated during paternal care. Chemogenetic activation/inhibition of the PVN OT projection to VTA promoted/decreased paternal care, respectively. Chemogenetic inhibition of the PVN to VTA OT pathway reduced dopamine (DA) release in the NAc of male mandarin voles during licking and grooming of pups as revealed by in vivo fiber photometry. Optogenetic activation/inhibition of the VTA to NAc DA pathway possibly enhanced/suppressed paternal behaviors, respectively. Furthermore, chemogenetic activation/inhibition of PVN to NAc OT circuit enhanced/inhibited paternal care. This finding is a first step toward delineating the neuronal circuity underlying paternal care and may have implications for treating abnormalities in paternal care associated with paternal postpartum depression or paternal abuse.

Copyright information:

© 2021 the authors.

This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/rdf).
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