Neural circuits for mammalian parental behaviour

Abstract

Most mammalian offspring are born helpless and depend on sustained parental care for survival, making caregiving one of the most conserved and essential behavioural repertoires in mammals. Yet infant-directed behaviours can be remarkably variable, ranging from care to neglect and aggression, even within the same individual. How neural circuits support both the robustness and the flexibility of parental behaviour remains poorly understood. Here we review recent advances in our understanding of the neural mechanisms of mammalian caregiving, placing circuit-level insights from rodent models into the broader context of parental diversity across mammals. Emerging evidence indicates that internal state and social experience dynamically reshape parental circuits across timescales from hours to weeks and that these circuits adapt their function to generate life stage-appropriate behavioural output. Rather than acting as fixed control systems for instinctive actions, parental circuits are highly plastic and context dependent. Parental behaviour therefore provides a powerful model for understanding how neural circuits are reconfigured to meet changing behavioural demands. Parental care is a conserved and robust feature of mammalian reproductive behaviour, but is highly variable, even within individuals. Jamieson and Kohl describe the neural circuits that drive parental caregiving in rodents, as well as their modulation by context, internal state, social experience, life stage and competing motivational demands.