Motherhood and infant contact regulate neuroplasticity in the serotonergic midbrain dorsal raphe.

ABSTRACT: The adult brain shows remarkable neuroplasticity in response to hormones and the socioemotional modifications that they influence. In females with reproductive and maternal experience, this neuroplasticity includes the birth and death of cells in several forebrain regions involved in maternal caregiving and postpartum affective state. Such plasticity in midbrain sites critical for these behavioral and emotional processes has never been examined, though. By visualizing bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) to label mitotic cells, NeuroD for neuronal precursors, and TUNEL to identify dying cells, we found that the midbrain dorsal raphe nucleus (DR, the source of most ascending serotoninergic projections) exhibited significant neuroplasticity in response to motherhood. Specifically, BrdU analyses revealed

SUBMITTER: Holschbach MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5272870 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature