Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2021 Oct 29;11(11):3092. doi: 10.3390/ani11113092

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© 2021 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

PMC Copyright notice

The neurophysiology of maternal behavior, milk let down, suckling and allosuckling. The main hormones associated with these processes (PRL, OX and ADH) act on different cerebral structures. The OX response is mediated by the VTA, PVN, amygdala, BNST and MPOA/AH. PRL site of action is in the MPOA/AH. The amygdala, NAc and BDNST also have a role in the reward system and maternal memory, and the former in the olfactory recognition of the offspring. ADH: antidiuretic hormone; BNST: bed nucleus of the stria terminalis; MPOA/AH: medial preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus; NAc: nucleus accumbens; OX: oxytocin; PRL: prolactin; PVN: paraventricular nucleus; VTA: ventral tegmental area, adepted from [110,111,112,113,114].