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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Apr 2.
Published in final edited form as: Behav Brain Res. 2017 Dec 27;341:114–121. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.12.034

Figure 4. Maternal care before and after central CRF receptor blockade in prairie vole mothers.

Figure 4

Female prairie voles were fitted with an ICV guide cannula on pregnancy day 18, on which pairs were either separated or stayed paired. On lactation day 1, maternal care in the home cage was monitored at 8:00 A.M. for 60 min, followed by acute infusion of vehicle (VEH) or the CRF receptor 1/2 antagonist D-Phe under brief restraining. Afterwards, behavioral observations continued for 90 min. (A) Arched back nursing (ABN) did not change throughout the test in fs D-Phe mothers, but dropped in both VEH-treated groups immediately after treatment infusion, i.e. +30 min, and returned to pre-infusion levels at +90 min. Both VEH-treated groups showed immediately after treatment more (B) blanket nursing position/direct contact with the pups (blanket/contact; fp VEH, fs VEH), (C) licking/grooming the pups (fp VEH), and (D) self-grooming (fp VEH, fs VEH). For further details, see legends to Fig. 1, 2. Data are presented as mean + SEM, n = 6 – 7. ++ p < 0.01 versus fs D-Phe at same time point; # p < 0.05 versus “+30” within same group; ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05 versus pre-infusion time point.