The Neurobiology of Parenting and Infant-Evoked Aggression.

ABSTRACT

Parenting behavior comprises a variety of adult-infant and adult-adult interactions across multiple timescales that require an extensive reorganization of individual priorities and physiology. The state transition from non-parent to parent is facilitated by combinatorial hormone action on specific cell types that are integrated throughout interconnected and brain-wide neuronal circuits. In this review we take a comprehensive approach to integrate historical and current literature on each of these topics across multiple species, with a focus on rodents. New and emerging molecular, circuit based and computational technologies have recently been used to address outstanding gaps in our current framework of knowledge on infant-mediated behavior, mainly in murine models. This work is raising fundamental questions about the interplay between instinctive and learned components of parenting and the mutual regulation of parenting and anti-parenting behaviors in health and disease. Whenever possible, we point to how these technologies have helped gain novel insights, while opening new avenues of research into studies of parenting. We hope this review will serve as an introduction for those new to the field, a comprehensive resource for those already studying parenting, and a guidepost for designing future studies.