Cell Type-Specific Hormonal Signaling Configures Hypothalamic Circuits for Parenting.

ABSTRACT: Parenting behavior emerges from hormonally sensitive circuits, but how distinct circuit components are affected by, and contribute to, sex and state dependent changes in infant caregiving remains unclear. Using cell type-specific approaches, we characterized two circuit nodes that are differentially configured by hormones to modulate infant-evoked behavior. An excitatory neuronal population in the anteroventral periventricular nucleus is only active in lactating mothers, increases virgin female caregiving when artificially stimulated and confers oxytocin sensitivity in mothers through a prolactin-STAT5b pathway. These neurons function upstream of another preoptic area population involved in male and female parenting, thus boosting caregiving by mothers. By contrast, androgen signaling in t

SUBMITTER: Logeman BL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12713651 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature