Effects of Pregnancy Hormones on Maternal Responsiveness, Responsiveness to Estrogen Stimulation of Maternal Behavior, and the Lordosis Response to Estrogen Stimulation

Rosenblatt, Jay S.; Olufowobi, Atinuke; Siegel, Harold I.

doi:10.1006/hbeh.1998.1441

Cited by 60 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…In female mammals, estradiol increases significantly during pregnancy, spikes just prior to birth, and drops precipitously thereafter (Yoshinaga et al 1969). Pre-birth increases in estradiol are thought to be associated with maternal care Numan 1994;Pryce 1996;Rosenblatt et al 1998;Wynne-Edwards and Reburn 2000) and women who experience smaller declines in estradiol from late pregnancy to the early postpartum, self-report the highest levels of nurturance and feelings of attachment to their new babies (Fleming et al 1997), suggesting that higher levels of estradiol support nurturant behavior. In female rats, licking and grooming of pups can activate estrogen receptors, suggesting that nurturant behavior can feed back to influence the neural mechanisms that support maternal care (Champagne et al 2001).…”

Section: Nurturant Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Intimate Relationships Then and Now: How Old Hormonal Processes are Influenced by Our Modern Psychology

Wardecker

Smith

Edelstein

et al. 2015

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

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In this review we argue that relatively recent evolutionary adaptations that are relational or psychological in nature might refocus, dampen, or otherwise shape hormonal processes related to evolutionarily Bolder^behaviors. We focus on the steroid hormones testosterone and estradiol and discuss a) their associations with Bolder relational processes^such as mate competition, dominance and nurturance, and b) the ways in which Bnewer relational processes^such as commitment and attachment relate to these hormones in the context of intimate relationships. We propose that these new relational processes might influence hormones in a manner that enables short-term mating relationships to be transformed into long-term romantic pair-bonds that may be unique to humans.Keywords Mating . Pair-bonds . Testosterone . Estradiol . Evolution . Adaptations Most species, including humans, have evolved some repertoire of behaviors that facilitate short-term mating (i.e., uncommitted sexual relationships that last for a short period of time, Simpson and Gangestad 1991), such as attracting desirable mates, competing for the attention of those mates, and keeping others away from mates once they have been acquired (Gangestad and Simpson 2000). These evolutionarily Boldb ehaviors occur frequently, can be engaged with limited conscious effort (Miller 1998), and are important components of the relationship initiation process.Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology (2015) 1:150-176 DOI 10.1007/s40750-015-0021-9 Britney M. Wardecker and Leigh K. Smith are co-first authors and contributed equally to this work. Only a few species, however, have evolved behaviors designed to deliberately maintain long-term, sexually exclusive relationships. Fewer than 5 % of mammalian species establish long-term, monogamous pair-bonds with adult mating partners (Kleiman 1977). A pairbond can be defined as an enduring and close relationship between two adult members of a species that generally involves sexual activity, intimacy, the desire to be close to one another, and deep emotional investment (Hawkes 2004; van Anders et al. 2011). Among humans, the formation of these types of pair bonds is a meaningful priority. For example, forming intimate connections is reported as one of the most important human motives, sometimes even more so than is meeting basic physiological needs such as securing food and water (Kenrick et al. 2010). Indeed, there may be several benefits to successfully establishing a long-term pair-bond. Pair-bonded partners benefit from increased paternal investment, which in turn promotes offspring health (Barash 1977;Fisher 1998;Kenrick and Trost 1997). The formation of long-term pair-bonds may also decrease the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (Campbell and Loving, in press), and partners who are married or committed to long-term relationships tend to live longer than their unmarried and single counterparts (Drefahl 2012;Van Poppel and Joung 2001).Yet, transforming short-term mating relationships into long-term pair...

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Section: Nurturant Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Intimate Relationships Then and Now: How Old Hormonal Processes are Influenced by Our Modern Psychology

Wardecker

Smith

Edelstein

et al. 2015

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

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“…Jay provided the framework, the scaffolding for much of the work on maternal behavior that has taken place in the past 45 years. He was among the first to study its humoral (Terkel & Rosenblatt, 1968, 1972 and hormonal (Bridges, Feder, & Rosenblatt, 1977;Bridges, Rosenblatt, & Feder, 1978;Rosenblatt, Olufowobi, & Siegel, 1998;Siegel & Rosenblatt, 1975a,b) bases; he explored the role of sensory factors, starting with somatosensory stimulation of mammary gland development during pregnancy derived through self-licking (Roth & Rosenblatt, 1966, 1967, and the role of chemosensory cues in its organization and regulation (Fleming & Rosenblatt, 1974a,b,c;, 1993. His work on experiential factors (which harks back to his studies on the role of experience in the mating behavior of male rats following castration) is legion and begins with his famous chapter with Rosenblatt and Lehrman (1963) and culminating in a progress report with Anne Mayer and Harold Siegel in 1979 describing the distinction between the onset of the behavior at parturition under hormonal control and its maintenance, through sensory factors and experience (Rosenblatt, 1970(Rosenblatt, , 1975).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The three faces of Jay S. Rosenblatt

Fleming

2006

Developmental Psychobiology

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“…Substantial evidence acquired over the past 30 years indicates that three hormones, present in varying serum levels across pregnancy, synergize to induce the rapid onset of maternal behavior that typifies the peurperium. These are: (1) elevated levels of lactogenic hormones (prolactin and placental lactogens) throughout pregnancy; (2) a rise in estrogen levels that occurs near term, and (3) chronically elevated progesterone levels followed by a precipitous drop in progesterone just prior to labor [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This involves prolonged exposure to high levels of lactogenic hormones and progesterone along with low serum estrogen levels, followed by a drop in hormone levels after surgery. If subjects receiving this treatment are injected with 20 µg/kg estradiol benzoate (EB) following HO and then presented with pups 2 days later, most show maternal behavior within several hours of pup exposure, whereas vehicle-injected subjects typically do not [9, 10]. Pregnancy termination in and of itself provides some of this hormonal priming for maternal behavior, in that doses of EB much higher than 20 µg/kg are required to stimulate maternal behavior in virgin rats [9, 13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If subjects receiving this treatment are injected with 20 µg/kg estradiol benzoate (EB) following HO and then presented with pups 2 days later, most show maternal behavior within several hours of pup exposure, whereas vehicle-injected subjects typically do not [9, 10]. Pregnancy termination in and of itself provides some of this hormonal priming for maternal behavior, in that doses of EB much higher than 20 µg/kg are required to stimulate maternal behavior in virgin rats [9, 13]. If progesterone withdrawal following pregnancy termination is prevented by administering exogenous progesterone, estrogen-stimulated maternal behavior is delayed, indicating that progesterone withdrawal is an essential element in the facilitation of maternal behavior by pregnancy termination [5, 8, 11, 14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Estrogen, Progesterone, and Pregnancy Termination Alter Neural Activity in Brain Regions That Control Maternal Behavior in Rats

Sheehan¹,

Numan²

2002

Neuroendocrinology

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Estrogen stimulates maternal behavior in rats, but does so most potently when its administration is temporally coupled with the termination of pregnancy. In contrast, this effect of estrogen is blocked when subjects are administered a large dose of progesterone concurrent with estrogen. The current study was performed to examine the neural circuitry influenced by these treatments and pup presentation during the hormonally-mediated onset and inhibition of maternal behavior. In experiment I, estrogen induced c-Fos immunoreactivity (Fos-IR) in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) in virgin rats, but was much more effective when administered to pregnancy-terminated rats, suggesting that pregnancy termination increases MPOA’s susceptibility to the physiological effects of estrogen. In experiment II, administering progesterone concurrently with estrogen in pregnancy-terminated rats strongly inhibited estrogen-stimulated Fos-IR in the MPOA, indicating that the physiological effects of estrogen on the MPOA are blocked if high progesterone levels are maintained. In experiment III, pregnancy-terminated subjects were administered estrogen, progesterone, or both hormones and presented with pups for 2 h. Approximately half of the subjects administered estrogen alone showed maternal behavior, but subjects receiving the other treatments were not maternal. In the MPOA, ventral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTv), and dorsal and intermediate lateral septum (LSd,i), maternal subjects showed the highest levels of Fos-IR, whereas subjects treated with progesterone alone or progesterone in combination with estrogen showed low levels of Fos-IR. These experiments suggest that estrogen could promote maternal behavior by enhancing pup-stimulated activity in the MPOA, BSTv, and LSd,i, regions believed to constitute the neural circuit that promotes maternal behavior, whereas progesterone could inhibit maternal behavior by inhibiting neural activity in some of these regions.

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Effects of Pregnancy Hormones on Maternal Responsiveness, Responsiveness to Estrogen Stimulation of Maternal Behavior, and the Lordosis Response to Estrogen Stimulation

Cited by 60 publications

References 40 publications

Intimate Relationships Then and Now: How Old Hormonal Processes are Influenced by Our Modern Psychology

Intimate Relationships Then and Now: How Old Hormonal Processes are Influenced by Our Modern Psychology

The three faces of Jay S. Rosenblatt

Estrogen, Progesterone, and Pregnancy Termination Alter Neural Activity in Brain Regions That Control Maternal Behavior in Rats

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