Elsevier

Hormones and Behavior

Volume 2, Issue 2, June 1971, Pages 161-171
Hormones and Behavior

Aspects of nonhormonal maternal behavior in the rat☆

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Abstract

A new cross-transfusion procedure using single chronically implanted heart catheters was developed to permit animals to move freely during transfusion. Support for the concept of a nonhormonal basis of maternal behavior was found in the inability of blood, cross-transfused from pup-induced maternal virgins and spontaneous retrieving females, to shorten latencies for retrieving in recipient virgins. Spontaneous retrieving was not affected by the hormonal changes of pregnancy. On the other hand, the rate of induction of maternal behavior (i.e., retrieving) was shown to depend upon the size of the cage in which virgins were confined with pups: latencies were directly proportionate to cage area and opportunity for contact with pups.

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☆

This study was supported by NIMH grant MH-08064 to JSR. The technique for cross transfusion was developed by JT. Publication number 93 from the Institute of Animal Behavior, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey 07102.

2

Present address: Department of Anatomy, U.C.L.A. School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90024. After September 1971, Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University, 155 Herzl Street, Tel-Aviv, Israel.

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