ArticleGenes, brain, and behavior2024
Re-wiring of the bonded brain: Gene expression among pair bonded female prairie voles changes as they transition to motherhood.
Article in Genes, brain, and behavior, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Romantic love as regulatory co-option of maternal-bonding circuitry: a testable genetic account.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Adolescent social instability stress alters social processes in male prairie voles.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Tactile stimulation reverses painful stimuli outcomes via PVN-VTA oxytocin circuitry and dopaminergic regulation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Distinct subcircuits within the mesolimbic dopamine system encode the salience and valence of social stimuli.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- A review of the effects of different types of social behaviors on the recruitment of neuropeptides and neurotransmitters in the nucleus accumbens.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2025Review
- Re-wiring of the bonded brain: Gene expression among pair bonded female prairie voles changes as they transition to motherhood.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Motherhood is a costly life-history transition accompanied by behavioral and neural plasticity necessary for offspring care. Motherhood in the monogamous prairie vole is associated with decreased pair bond strength, suggesting a trade-off between parental investment and pair bond maintenance. Neural mechanisms governing pair bonds and maternal bonds overlap, creating possible competition between the two. We measured mRNA expression of genes encoding receptors for oxytocin (oxtr), dopamine (d1r and d2r), mu-opioids (oprm1a), and kappa-opioids (oprk1a) within three brain areas processing salience of sociosensory cues (anterior cingulate cortex; ACC), pair bonding (nucleus accumbens; NAc), and maternal care (medial preoptic area; MPOA). We compared gene expression differences between pair bonded prairie voles that were never pregnant, pregnant (~day 16 of pregnancy), and recent mothers (day 3 of lactation). We found greater gene expression in the NAc (oxtr, d2r, oprm1a, and oprk1a) and MPOA (oxtr, d1r, d2r, oprm1a, and oprk1a) following the transition to motherhood. Expression for all five genes in the ACC was greatest for females that had been bonded for longer. Gene expression within each region was highly correlated, indicating that oxytocin, dopamine, and opioids comprise a complimentary gene network for social signaling. ACC-NAc gene expression correlations indicated that being a mother (oxtr and d1r) or maintaining long-term pair bonds (oprm1a) relies on the coordination of different signaling systems within the same circuit. Our study suggests the maternal brain undergoes changes that prepare females to face the trade-off associated with increased emotional investment in offspring, while also maintaining a pair bond.
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