Fig. 1.

Brief daily separations of rat pups from their mother lead to increased sensory input from the mother to the pups upon their reunion. A. A schematic of the handling paradigm: during postnatal day 2–9, the mother and the pups were separated for 15 min in different cages, and then reunited in the home cage. Control mother and pups remained in the home cage. B. Maternal sensory stimulation of the pups, specifically licking and grooming, was observed and quantified daily during the 30 min after the mothers and the pups were returned to home cages (n = 6 mothers per group). Adapted from Fenoglio et al. (2006) with permission.