Central corticosterone disrupts behavioral and neuroendocrine responses during lactation

CRF-R1 activation in the anterior-dorsal BNST induces maternal neglect in lactating rats via an HPA axis-independent central mechanism

“…Under basal conditions, CRF-R2 seem to act in concert with CRF-R1, while under stress conditions, CRF-R2 assume their well-documented role in terminating the stress response ( Bale et al, 2002 , Bale and Vale, 2004 ). Our data clearly demonstrates that CRF-R manipulation in the adBNST strongly influences HPA axis activity, which could potentially affect maternal care via CORT secretion ( Brummelte and Galea, 2010a , Pereira et al, 2015 ). Importantly, an acute rise in circulating ACTH and the concomitant increase in peripheral CORT did not impact maternal care, indicating that the behavioral changes observed following intra-adBNST CRF-R manipulation are likely centrally mediated, rather than a result of activation of the peripheral stress axis.…”

“…The BNST is vital for HPA axis regulation ( Crestani et al, 2013 ) as well as acutely ( Pereira et al, 2015 ) and chronically ( Brummelte and Galea, 2010a ) elevated CORT levels are detrimental to maternal care. Here, acute activation of CRF-R1 increased plasma ACTH and CORT, while activation of CRF-R2 increased ACTH to a lesser extent than CRF-R1 activation and affected CORT in a stress-dependent context, indicating differential regulation of the HPA axis by the two receptor subtypes.…”

Paternal Care in Biparental Rodents: Intra- and Inter-individual Variation

“…Maternal care by rodent mothers can be impaired by exposure to acute or chronic stressors or to experimental increases in corticosterone or corticotropin-releasing factor (e.g., Nephew and Bridges 2011;Klampfl et al 2014;Pereira et al 2015). Relatively little is known, however, about effects of stress or stress-related hormones or neuropeptides on allopaternal or paternal behavior, and in the few studies addressing this topic, results have mostly been fairly subtle.…”

Model Roles of the Hypothalamo-Neurohypophysial System in Neuroscience Study

“…On the one hand, glucocorticoids secreted in response to stress activation of the HPA axis can exert rapid negative feedback influences onto the HNS and thus, reduce the secretion of OXT and VP [99,100]. On the other hand, the activity of HPA axis is heavily modulated by VP and OXT.…”