Vasopressin, but not oxytocin, modulates responses to infant stimuli in marmosets providing care to dependent infants.

ABSTRACT: In family-living species, the quality and patterning of caregiving is the product of an individual's role within the family (mother, father, sibling) and parental experience, both of which interact with underlying neurobiological substrates. Among these substrates are the nonapeptides vasopressin and oxytocin, which modulate maternal, paternal, and alloparental care. We used a nonhuman primate model of the "nuclear family," the marmoset (Callithrix jacchus), to investigate relationships between caregiving experience, role within the family, and activation of either the oxytocin or vasopressin systems in shaping responsiveness to offspring. During two phases of offspring development (early infancy, juvenile), mothers, fathers, and older siblings were treated with vasopressin, oxytocin, or s

SUBMITTER: Taylor JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6949433 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature