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Neonatal Suckling, Oxytocin, and Early Infant Attachment to the Mother

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) promotes maternal care and social affiliation in adults but its importance in infant attachment still remains unknown. True animal models of infant attachment are extremely rare, and the sheep (in complement to non-human primates) is one of the few that provides the op...

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Autores principales: Nowak, Raymond, Lévy, Frédéric, Chaillou, Elodie, Cornilleau, Fabien, Cognié, Juliette, Marnet, Pierre-Guy, Williams, Peter D., Keller, Matthieu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7897683/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33628199
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2020.612651
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author Nowak, Raymond
Lévy, Frédéric
Chaillou, Elodie
Cornilleau, Fabien
Cognié, Juliette
Marnet, Pierre-Guy
Williams, Peter D.
Keller, Matthieu
author_facet Nowak, Raymond
Lévy, Frédéric
Chaillou, Elodie
Cornilleau, Fabien
Cognié, Juliette
Marnet, Pierre-Guy
Williams, Peter D.
Keller, Matthieu
author_sort Nowak, Raymond
collection PubMed
description The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) promotes maternal care and social affiliation in adults but its importance in infant attachment still remains unknown. True animal models of infant attachment are extremely rare, and the sheep (in complement to non-human primates) is one of the few that provides the opportunity to investigate its neuroendocrinological basis. In the lamb, access to the udder has strong rewarding properties for the establishment of a preferential relationship with the mother. Therefore, the present study explored the possible involvement of OT through its release during close social contacts with the mother. The first experiment revealed that lambs having free access to the udder from birth onward developed, by 12 h of age, a clear preference for their mothers over another maternal ewe. Delaying access to the udder for six, four or even only 2 h starting at birth, by covering the ewe’s udder, resulted in the lack of such a preference without affecting general activity. These effects persisted in most cases at 24 h but by 72 h of age a bond with the mother was clearly expressed. Experiment two showed that social interactions with the mother were followed by a release of OT in the plasma when lambs had the possibility to suckle. Non-nutritive interactions were without effects. Preliminary data on two subjects suggested that OT might also increase in the cerebrospinal fluid after suckling. Finally, in the third experiment, oral administration of a non-peptide OT receptor antagonist (L-368-899, Merck) over the first 4 h after birth led to decreased exploration of the mother’s body compared to lambs receiving saline, and impaired the expression of a preference for the mother at 24 h. The effects were no longer observed at 48 h. Our findings demonstrate that both delayed access to the mother’s udder and OT receptor antagonist alter the onset of mother preference in newborn lambs. This suggests that central OT facilitates the development of filial attachment through its release during suckling.
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spelling pubmed-78976832021-02-23 Neonatal Suckling, Oxytocin, and Early Infant Attachment to the Mother Nowak, Raymond Lévy, Frédéric Chaillou, Elodie Cornilleau, Fabien Cognié, Juliette Marnet, Pierre-Guy Williams, Peter D. Keller, Matthieu Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) Endocrinology The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) promotes maternal care and social affiliation in adults but its importance in infant attachment still remains unknown. True animal models of infant attachment are extremely rare, and the sheep (in complement to non-human primates) is one of the few that provides the opportunity to investigate its neuroendocrinological basis. In the lamb, access to the udder has strong rewarding properties for the establishment of a preferential relationship with the mother. Therefore, the present study explored the possible involvement of OT through its release during close social contacts with the mother. The first experiment revealed that lambs having free access to the udder from birth onward developed, by 12 h of age, a clear preference for their mothers over another maternal ewe. Delaying access to the udder for six, four or even only 2 h starting at birth, by covering the ewe’s udder, resulted in the lack of such a preference without affecting general activity. These effects persisted in most cases at 24 h but by 72 h of age a bond with the mother was clearly expressed. Experiment two showed that social interactions with the mother were followed by a release of OT in the plasma when lambs had the possibility to suckle. Non-nutritive interactions were without effects. Preliminary data on two subjects suggested that OT might also increase in the cerebrospinal fluid after suckling. Finally, in the third experiment, oral administration of a non-peptide OT receptor antagonist (L-368-899, Merck) over the first 4 h after birth led to decreased exploration of the mother’s body compared to lambs receiving saline, and impaired the expression of a preference for the mother at 24 h. The effects were no longer observed at 48 h. Our findings demonstrate that both delayed access to the mother’s udder and OT receptor antagonist alter the onset of mother preference in newborn lambs. This suggests that central OT facilitates the development of filial attachment through its release during suckling. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-02-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7897683/ /pubmed/33628199 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2020.612651 Text en Copyright © 2021 Nowak, Lévy, Chaillou, Cornilleau, Cognié, Marnet, Williams and Keller http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Endocrinology
Nowak, Raymond
Lévy, Frédéric
Chaillou, Elodie
Cornilleau, Fabien
Cognié, Juliette
Marnet, Pierre-Guy
Williams, Peter D.
Keller, Matthieu
Neonatal Suckling, Oxytocin, and Early Infant Attachment to the Mother
title Neonatal Suckling, Oxytocin, and Early Infant Attachment to the Mother
title_full Neonatal Suckling, Oxytocin, and Early Infant Attachment to the Mother
title_fullStr Neonatal Suckling, Oxytocin, and Early Infant Attachment to the Mother
title_full_unstemmed Neonatal Suckling, Oxytocin, and Early Infant Attachment to the Mother
title_short Neonatal Suckling, Oxytocin, and Early Infant Attachment to the Mother
title_sort neonatal suckling, oxytocin, and early infant attachment to the mother
topic Endocrinology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7897683/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33628199
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2020.612651
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