Figure 2. Parenting activates galanin-expressing neurons in the MPOA.

a-c, c-fos mRNA expression in the MPOA of virgin males, fathers and virgin females after interaction with pups. d, Schematic illustration of the MPOA in sagittal and coronal sections, adapted from the Paxinos and Franklin mouse brain atlas. e, Social behaviors induce c-fos activation in the MPOA in virgin and mated males and females. Groups are labeled as follows: C: fresh bedding exposure; KO: Trpc2^−/−; fa: father; vf: virgin female; mo: mother. Mean+SEM, one-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni's post test comparing all the social interaction groups to fresh bedding control, ***P<0.001. ns, not significant. f, g catFISH identifying parenting and mating induced c-fos in the MPOA in males show that the two behaviors activate largely distinct MPOA neuronal populations. Par: Parenting; Mat: Mating; nuc: nuclear (yellow); cyto: cytoplasmic (red). Mean+SEM, one-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni's post test comparing all pairs of groups, **P<0.01. h, Co-labeling c-fos and Gal in the MPOA of virgin females after interaction with pups. i, j, Percentage of c-fos+ cells expressing Gal and percentage of Gal+ cells expressing c-fos in males and females after various social interactions, compared to the percentages of NeuN+ cells expressing Gal and c-fos, respectively. Agg: Aggression. Mean+SEM, t-test pairing the measurements from each animal, adjusted by Benjamini– Hochberg procedure controlling the false discovery rate. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001, ns, not significant.