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- Title
Paternal deprivation alters play-fighting, serum corticosterone and the expression of hypothalamic vasopressin and oxytocin in juvenile male mandarin voles.
- Authors
Wang, Jianli; Tai, Fadao; Yan, Xingfu; Yu, Peng
- Abstract
Although early paternal deprivation significantly affects offspring behavioral and neuroendocrine development, the link between paternal deprivation and social play behavior remains unclear. Mandarin voles ( Microtus mandarinus) are socially monogamous and display bi-paternal care. The present study examined the development of social play in juvenile male mandarin voles and the paternal influence on play-fighting, vasopressin- and oxytocin-immunoreactive neurons and serum corticosterone and testosterone levels. The results show that social play was more pronounced during postnatal days 28-35, differing from the ontogenetic pattern of other forms of social behavior. On postnatal day 35, the peak in play-fighting activity, paternal deprivation reduced boxing/wrestling levels and vasopressin-immunoreactive neurons in the anterior hypothalamus and oxytocin-immunoreactive neurons in the paraventricular nucleus, but increased vasopressin-immunoreactive neurons in the paraventricular nucleus and corticosterone levels. These results suggest that mandarin voles engage in social play according to an inverted U-shaped curve in ontogeny, and paternal deprivation influences the development of offspring play-fighting; hypothalamic vasopressin, oxytocin and serum corticosterone may play a modulatory role in the alteration of play-fighting elicited by paternal deprivation; decreased play-fighting may correlate with depressed vasopressin levels in the anterior hypothalamus.
- Subjects
VOLE behavior; PATERNAL deprivation; CORTICOSTERONE; HYPOTHALAMIC hormones; VASOPRESSIN regulation; OXYTOCIN -- Regulation; NERVOUS system
- Publication
Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural & Behavioral Physiology, 2012, Vol 198, Issue 11, p787
- ISSN
0340-7594
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00359-012-0748-8