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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Jul 28.
Published in final edited form as: Front Neuroendocrinol. 2019 May 22;54:100766. doi: 10.1016/j.yfrne.2019.100766

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

The maternal behavior neurocircuit - a framework to consider the effects of exogenous opioids. Maternal behaviors may be activated by the amygdala (AMY). Insular cortex (IC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), medial preoptic area (mPOA) of the hypothalamus (HYP), ventral tegmental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens (NAc) and ventral pallidum (VP) activate caregiving. behaviors. Periaqueductal gray (PAG) activates defensive/aggressive behaviors. Sensitive maternal behavior requires that caregiving and defense processing reciprocally inhibit each other. Exogenous opioids, which affect multiple parts of the maternal brain, require further study in animals. We present preliminary data.on the effects of exogenous opioids on human mothers below in 4.3.