Becoming a mother shifts the activity of the social and motivation brain networks in mice

Abstract

During pregnancy hormones increase motivated pup-directed behaviors. We here analyze hormone-induced changes in brain activity, by comparing cFos-immunoreactivity in the sociosexual (SBN) and motivation brain networks (including medial preoptic area, MPO) of virgin versus late-pregnant pup-naïve female mice exposed to pups or buttons (control). Pups activate more the SBN than buttons in both late-pregnant and virgin females. By contrast, pregnancy increases pup-elicited activity in the motivation circuitry (e.g. accumbens core) but reduces button-induced activity and, consequently, button investigation. Principal components analysis supports the identity of the social and motivation brain circuits, placing the periaqueductal gray between both systems. Linear discriminant analysis of cFos-immunoreactivity in the socio-motivational brain network predicts the kind of female and stimulus better than the activity of the MPO alone; this suggests that the neuroendocrinological basis of social (e.g. maternal) behaviors conforms to a neural network model, rather than to distinct hierarchical linear pathways for different behaviors.