title: Effects of REM sleep restriction during pregnancy on rodent maternal behavior.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effects of sleep restriction during pregnancy on maternal care and maternal aggression in a rodent model.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-three female Wistar rats were assigned to one of two groups: control (n=12) or sleep restriction (n=11) during the entire pregnancy. At the fifth postpartum day, the animals were subjected to the resident-intruder paradigm and to the pup retrieval test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sleep restriction during pregnancy had no direct effects on maternal care. Regarding aggressive behavior, defensive aggression was increased by sleep loss, with a lower responsiveness threshold to hostile environmental stimuli. Sleep deprivation during gestation also reduced self-grooming behavior.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taking increased self-grooming as a behavioral correlate of anxiety in rodents, this study provides evidence that lactating dams were in a condition of reduced anxiety. From an adaptive perspective, this pattern of stress response may function to ensure proper maternal behavior, thereby guaranteeing the survival and viability of the litter. Under a translational perspective, the present article confronts the importance of biological and adaptive features to rodent maternal behavior with the relevance of sociocultural factors to the human mother-infant relationship and to the onset of postpartum depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychobiology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Gabriel N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Pires
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychobiology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tufik
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychobiology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Monica L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Andersen
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D000818:Animals; D000067290:Behavior Rating Scale; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D023421:Models, Animal; D049590:Postpartum Period / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012016:Reference Values; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D013997:Time Factors