Physiological mechanisms in the control of maternal behavior in rats: A review.

Examined the evidence derived from 2 types of studies-those employing lesion techniques and those manipulating hormonal levels. The hormone studies suggest that prolactin, progesterone, and estrogen-and maybe another, as yet unidentified substance-play a coordinated role in the initiation of maternal behavior. Though the lesion studies are inconclusive, the evidence suggests that lesions of the hypothalamic-pituitary system, which maintains the hormonal balance, produce deficits in the motivational aspects of maternal behavior, whereas lesions of the limbic system produce deficits in the integration and organization of the behavior. It is suggested that researchers specify the deficits they find and assess the possible disruption of other behavior patterns, so that valid conclusions can be reached about functional specificity in the control of maternal behavior. (145 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Observing leader behavior: Toward reciprocal determinism in leadership theory.

Developed and explored observational measures of leader behavior, relying on a "reciprocal determinism" viewpoint of causality (leader behavior is seen as both a cause of subordinate behavior and caused by it). In Exp I, 28 male undergraduates assumed the role of subordinate in groups of 2 Ss and took part in 1 of 5 experimental interchanges with a "supervisor" (1 of the experimenters). Results show that observational methods of leader verbal behavior were feasible. In Exp II, 10 graduate students performed the role of leader and were subjected to laboratory manipulations of subordinate performance. Results show that 80% of verbal behavior of Ss concentrated on a methods approach as opposed to about 20% effort oriented toward a motivational-verbal approach. Motivational behavior was the most responsive to the performance manipulations. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physiological gradients and behavior.

Physiological gradients accompanying mental activity have been found in skeletal-motor and autonomic recordings, commencing with the onset of the behavior sequence and terminating at its conclusion. Experimental evidence is presented indicating that these gradients do not signify increasing activation (or arousal) during the behavioral sequence (e.g., task or period of attentive listening). On the contrary, the EEG evidence clearly indicates that cortical activity remains relatively constant during the sequence when skeletal-motor and cardio-respiratory levels show progressive rise. While the gradients therefore appear not to represent increasing motivation during the task, there is strong evidence that the steepness of the gradients is a function of motivational level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between marital distress and child behavior problems, maternal personal adjustment, maternal personality, and maternal parenting behavior.

Examined the relationship of marital adjustment to maternal personal adjustment, maternal personality, maternal perception of child adjustment, maternal parenting behavior, and child behavior using 20 maritally distressed and 20 maritally nondistressed mothers and their children (aged 3–7 yrs). Ss were given a battery of tests that included the Beck Depression Inventory, the Trait form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Personality Research Form—Form A. Results indicate that, compared to mothers in the maritally nondistressed group, mothers in the distressed group perceived themselves as significantly more anxious and depressed and perceived their children as having significantly more behavior problems, particularly in the area of undercontrol. There were no differences between the groups with respect to maternal personality. Maritally distressed mothers showed less appropriate parenting behavior than did nondistressed mothers and the children of maritally distressed mothers were more deviant than were children of nondistressed mothers. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reporting maternal behavior during diarrhea in Bedouin children

Diarrhea is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality among children in developing countries. The Bedouin population of southern Israel is in transition from a nomadic to a settled life-style. We examined maternal knowledge and reported behavior when their children had diarrhea. Mothers defined diarrhea as the passing of 4-5 stools per day. The most frequent signs of the illness were an increased number of watery stools with changes in either color or form. The most frequent symptom that prompted mothers to seek medical aid was blood in the stool. All mothers reported increasing fluid intake in their children during diarrhea, and most reported giving herbal tea. About half of the women avoided milk products and used special foods for the treatment of diarrhea. A quarter of the women reported stopping or decreasing the frequency of breast feeding during diarrhea. Reported cessation of breast feeding during diarrhea was associated with changing to special foods, and failure to note the onset of diarrhea or to recognize signs of dehydration. The withdrawal of breast feeding during episodes of illness and diarrhea is related to lack of knowledge regarding diarrhea. These data indicate that even in this population, with free access to preventive and curative medical care, there should be greater efforts to educate mothers to detect diarrheal disease and to maintain breast feeding during the diarrhea.     

Hysterectomy-induced maternal behavior pregnancy in the rat.

Performed hysterectomies between the 10th and 19th day of pregnancy, and tested females with pups for the onset of maternal behavior starting 0, 24, 48, or 72 hr after surgery. Ss were 394 Charles River female rats. Pups remained with females overnight, and testing was repeated daily with fresh pups until females exhibited maternal behavior. Latencies for the onset of maternal behavior were shorter after hysterectomy on the 10th and 16th days of pregnancy than in intact pregnant Ss at the same stages of pregnancy; latencies become shorter, the later the termination of pregnancy. When the ovaries were removed along with hysterectomy during pregnancy, short-latency maternal behavior no longer was exhibited. Pregnant Ss were tested during the last 40 hr of pregnancy: nest building began at 34 and retrieving at 28 hr prepartum. The effect of hysterectomy during pregnancy on ovarian secretion of estrogen and progesterone is reviewed, and it is concluded that the rise in estrogen secretion, which follows hysterectomy during pregnancy, is most likely the cause of the rapid onset of maternal behavior after hysterectomy. A similar proposal is made for the prepartum onset of maternal behavior in intact pregnant females. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Decline of maternal behavior in the virgin and lactating rat.

Gave to sensitized virgins and postpartum lactating mothers, both exhibiting maternal behavior, donor litters that increased in age by 1 day, for 28 days, starting at the onset of maternal behavior. Ss were 18 Charles River rats. Each day Ss were tested for maternal behavior with 4-8 day old pups. Maternal care (i.e., nursing-crouching, retrieving, nest building, and licking and maternal withdrawal, rejection, and prevention of nursing were recorded. After the 9th day, Ss were also tested with the progressively older pups 10-28 days of age with which they were living. Virgins and lactating mothers showed generally similar patterns of maternal care although some differences were found, and they declined in maternal behavior toward the older pups in a similar manner. Maternal behavior did not decline in tests with younger pups. Results are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that the decline as well as the maintenance of maternal behavior postpartum is nonhormonally mediated. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Boys' and girls' reports of maternal and paternal behavior.

Reports of parent behavior on a number of scales, measuring various aspects of nurturance and control, were analyzed on 2 samples. Differences between maternal and paternal behavior were highly consistent between the 2 samples, suggesting that these roles may be stable across samples differing in age and social class. Mothers appear to be consistently perceived as more nurturant and as more controlling through indirect, covert methods by both boys and girls. Differences between boys' and girls' reports of mother and of father were different for all comparisons in both samples, suggesting that there may be an interaction between 2 or more of the following variables: sex of parent, sex of child, age of child, social class, and religious affiliation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retention of maternal behavior in nulliparous and primiparous rats: Effects of duration of previous maternal experience.

Lactating primiparous and nonlactating pup-induced maternal nulliparous female CD rats were given 1, 4, or 9 days of maternal experience with rat pups before they were isolated from the young. 25 days later, Ss were reexposed to 3–8 day old foster pups, and latencies to show maternal behavior in the home cage and a T-maze test were scored. In the home cage, the latencies of all nulliparous groups were shorter upon reinduction. Comparisons of primiparous and nulliparous groups revealed that primiparous females (1, 4, and 9 days combined) carried a pup, crouched, retrieved, and grouped the pups and built a good nest faster than did nulliparous females (combined groups). The number of behavioral differences between specific primiparous and nulliparous groups decreased as the length of prior maternal experience increased. In the T-maze, latencies to retrieve a pup were shorter in primiparous females. Results indicate that the processes underlying establishment of the long-term retention of short-latency maternal behavior in these groups may be comparable. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cocaine transiently impairs maternal behavior in the rat.

This paradigm distinguished between two hypotheses not previously directly addressed. Do repeated exposures to cocaine at critical times during pregnancy, when the neural mechanisms that support maternal behavior are being readied, alter some fundamental neural underpinning of maternal behavior in rats? Alternatively, does cocaine alter maternal behavior only when circulating? During the 4 hr after cocaine injection (20 or 40 mg/kg), there were significant deficits in maternal behavior. In contrast, 16 hr after cocaine injection, drug-injected females, in which plasma cocaine had fallen to nondetectable levels, showed the normal maternal behavior of saline-injected controls. This pattern of impaired maternal behavior after cocaine injection, followed by normal behavior as blood levels returned to zero, was replicated over 8 days. It was concluded that cocaine impairs maternal behavior only when circulating and does not have a residual effect in the transiently drug-free, chronically drug-treated dam. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Medial preoptic area and maternal behavior in the female rat.

Reports results of 3 experiments with a total of 92 postpartum lactating female Wistar rats. Medial preoptic area lesions severely disrupted maternal behavior, whereas lesions of the stria terminalis and medial cortico-hypothalamic tract knife cuts were without effect. Parasagittal knife cuts that severed the mediolateral connections of the preoptic-anterior hypothalamic continuum also severely disrupted maternal behavior. The lesions and knife cuts which disrupted maternal behavior had no effect on female sexual behavior. It is concluded that the medial preoptic area and its lateral connections are essential for the normal display of maternal behavior in postpartum lactating female rats. Evidence also indicates that independent neural mechanisms for the control of maternal behavior and sexual behavior exist within the hypothalamus of female rats. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of kitten vocalizations on maternal behavior.

Observation of 8 mother cats and their litters revealed that the previous occurrence of a kitten vocalization was associated with an increased probability that mothers would approach kittens, change to a different body position, shift their lactation position, or vocalize. Experimental study, in which the effects of kitten vocalizations were separated from other kitten-emitted cues, demonstrated that vocalizations reliably elicited approach and investigation of the sound source from mothers. Further, mothers exposed to kitten vocalizations removed kittens from a box and carried them to the home site. Repeated testing of mothers demonstrated that these effects of kitten vocalizations on maternal behavior remained strong across at least the 1st 30 days of life. It is concluded that vocalizations are a stimulus by which kittens influence their mother's behavior. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Medial preoptic area and onset of maternal behavior in the rat.

Three experiments examined whether the medial preoptic area (MPOA) is involved in the onset of maternal behavior in the rat. Exp I, with 54 female Charles River CD rats, investigated whether estradiol benzoate (EB) acts on the MPOA to facilitate the onset of maternal behavior in 16-day pregnant, hysterectomized, and ovariectomized Ss. When given EB implants in the MPOA, these Ss had significantly shorter latencies for the onset of maternal behavior than those implanted with cholesterol in the MPOA or with EB in the ventromedial hypothalamus, in mammillary bodies, or under the skin. Exp II, with 62 Ss, showed that estrogen-induced prolactin release was not involved in this facilitation. Exp III, with 35 Ss, showed that MPOA lesions disrupted the onset of maternal behavior induced by pup stimulation in virgin females. (11/2 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception of maternal behavior by normal and handicapped children.

153 normal, 101 ambulatory but minimally brain damaged, and 44 wheelchair-bound 12–17 yr olds reported on how they perceived their mother's behavior. Reports of the wheelchair-bound Ss were similar to those of normals. However, the minimally brain-damaged Ss perceived maternal behavior as significantly more controlling and less accepting than either the normal or wheelchair-bound groups. The author discusses whether this finding is a result of actual differences in maternal behavior or of differences in perceptual sensitivity. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Domestic violence, maternal parenting, maternal mental health, and infant externalizing behavior.

This study examined whether maternal functioning mediated the relationship between domestic violence (DV) and infant externalizing behavior. Participants were 203 mother-infant dyads. Support was found for a partially mediated model in which maternal functioning mediated the relationship between current DV and infant externalizing behaviors. Past DV was directly associated with infants' externalizing behavior. Results suggest the need for early intervention and prevention efforts for families living with DV. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect and mimetic behavior]

The relationship between facial expression and experienced affect presents many problems. The two diametrically opposed positions proposing solutions to this problem are exemplified using the conceptions of Mandler u. Izard. The underlying premises of both conceptions still prevail in various forms. The authors reject the concepts according to which facial expression is merely correlated to the affects (see Mandler 1975) as well as the view that facial expression controls the affects (see Izard 1977). The relationship between affect and facial expression is reexamined, subjecting it to a semiotic, essentially semantic analysis similar to the Ogden and Richards' language and meaning approach. This analysis involves a critical discussion of Scherer's attempt of a purely communicational interpretation using Bühler's organon model. In the author's approach, facial expression is seen not simply as a system of signals, but as a system of representative signs which signify the affects and refer to the emotive meaning of things for the subject. The authors develop the thesis that human beings are not born simply with the ability to speak, but also with the abstract possibility of performing facial expressions. This ability develops by way of coordinating patterns of expressions, which are presumably phylogenetically determined, with affects that take on a socially determined individual form, similar to language acquisition during socialisation. The authors discuss the methodological implications arising for studies investigating the affective meaning of facial expressions.     

Gonadal androgen and sociosexual behavior of male mammals: A comparative analysis.

A review of the literature indicates that sexual, aggressive, and scent-marking behavioral patterns are altered by withdrawal and replacement of gonadal androgen in some mammalian species. Although in some animals peripheral organs related to the expression of these behavioral patterns may be affected by androgen, most behavioral influences are caused by the effects of androgen on the central nervous system. Earlier experimental work dealing with species differences in androgen control of sexual behavior suggested that androgen influence was inversely proportional to the relative development of the neocortex. Although this "evolutionary" principle may play a role in the overall picture, recent work reveals that understanding species differences requires an analysis of factors that relate to the responsiveness of the neural tissue in areas of the central nervous system that are affected by androgen. (130 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coordination of maternal directives with preschoolers' behavior in compliance-problem and healthy dyads.

How mothers in compliance-problem vs. healthy dyads modulated the specificity of directives as a function of their preschoolers' moment-to-moment behavior was investigated. Interaction was observed in 8 compliance-problem and 8 healthy mother–child (3- to 4?-yr-olds) dyads in a block task originally developed by D. J. Wood and D. J. Middleton (see record 1975-25055-001). Mothers in the healthy group, as compared with those in the problem group, had significantly higher scores on a measure of maternal coordination, defined as the proportion of interventions that conformed to the rule that mothers should become more specific in their directives when their children fail and less specific when they succeed. Findings based on the z-score method of sequential analysis also indicated that healthy-group mothers more effectively modulated their directives. Implications for the long-standing controversy about whether parental control is good or bad are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dorsolateral connections of the medial preoptic area and maternal behavior in rats.

The lateral connections of the medial preoptic area (MPOA) are essential for maternal behavior in rats. The purpose of this study was to more exactly specify the nature of this pathway. Exp 1 found that knife cuts that severed the dorsolateral connections of the MPOA were as effective as complete cuts in disrupting maternal behavior, whereas knife cuts that severed the ventrolateral MPOA connections were ineffective. These results suggest that MPOA efferents and afferents critical for maternal behavior leave or enter the MPOA dorsolaterally. Exp 2 located possible sources of critical afferent input. Lactating rats received MPOA lateral cuts with a horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-coated wire knife. Full lateral cuts and dorsolateral cuts disrupted maternal behavior and labeled more cells with HRP in the nucleus of the solitary tract and the locus coeruleus than did ventrolateral cuts, which did not disrupt maternal behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consistency of maternal behavior from infancy to preadolescence.

Continuing studies on the effect of the mother on child development, the present investigation establishes that (a) interviews with the mother elicit comparable data to that gleaned from direct observation of the mother-child interaction and (b) at least with regard to the love-hate dimension, there is a consistent pattern of relationship between mother and child during infancy and in to preadolescence. Such validation was not found with regard to the factor of the autonomy-control continuum. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)