title: New theoretical and experimental approaches on maternal motivation in mammals.
abstract: Maternal behavior is expressed in different modalities, physiological conditions, and contexts. It is the result of a highly motivated brain, that allows the female to flexibily adapt her caring activities to different situations and social demands. To understand how mothers coordinate maternal and other motivated behaviors we discuss the limitations of current theoretical approaches to study maternal motivation (e.g. distinction between appetitive and consummatory behaviors), and propose a different approach (i.e. motorically active vs. passive motivations) and a distinction between maternal motivated state and maternal motivated behaviors. We review the evidence supporting dopamine mediation of maternal motivation and describe how different phases of the dopaminergic response - basal, tonic, and phasic release in the nucleus accumbens - relate to increased salience, invigorating behavior, and behavioral switching. The existing and new experimental paradigms to investigate maternal motivation, and its coexpression and coordination with other social or non-social motivations are also analyzed. An example of how specificity of motivational systems (e.g. maternal and sexual behavior at postpartum estrus) could be processed at the neural level is also provided. This revision offers new theoretical and experimental approaches to address the fundamental question of how mothers flexibly adapt and coordinate the different components of maternal behavior with other motivated behaviors, also critical for the survival of the species.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de la República, Avda. Gral. Flores 2125, CP 11800, Montevideo, Uruguay. Electronic address: neurolazabal@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Olazábal
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: Daniella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Agrati
authors.forename: Annabel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Alison S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Fleming
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: González-Mariscal
authors.forename: Frederic
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lévy
authors.forename: Aldo B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Lucion
authors.forename: Joan I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Morrell
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Numan
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Uriarte
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004298:Dopamine / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology*; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D004298:Dopamine
keywords: Appetitive/consummatory behaviors; Behavioral switching; Dopamine; Maternal behavior; Motivation; Mouse; Proactive/passive behaviors; Rabbit; Rat; Sheep; Voles