Fig. 2.

Proposed network changes to the corticotropin releasing hormone –expressing, stress-sensitive hypothalamic neurons following single or recurrent episode of augmented maternal care. The paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) receives excitatory (in green) and inhibitory (in red) synaptic inputs from the central nucleus of the amygdala (ACe) and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BnST), and excitatory projections from the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT). Excitatory bidirectional afferents exist between the PVT to both ACe and BnST. A. ACe and BnST (but not PVT) are activated by a single episode of augmented maternal care. B. Activation of PVT requires recurrent daily augmented maternal care. This is thought to lead to increased activation of the areas of BnST that send inhibitory synaptic input onto the CRH neurons in the PVN. Adapted from Karsten and Baram (2013) with permission. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)