Maternal care associates with play dominance rank among adult female rats

Abstract

Variations in maternal care influence important life history traits that determine reproductive fitness. The adult female offspring of mothers that show reduced levels of pup licking/grooming (LG; i.e., low-LG mothers) show increased defensive responses to stress, accelerated pubertal development, and greater sexual receptivity than the female offspring of high-LG mothers. Amongst several species an accelerated pattern of reproductive development is associated with increased dominance-related behaviors and higher social rank. We hypothesize that rats from low-LG dams may thus also secure higher social rank as a means to compete for limited resources with conspecifics. In this study, social interactions were observed in triads of adult female rats aged p90 that received low, mid, and high levels of pup LG over the first week of life. Low- and mid-LG females had the highest pinning scores and high-LG rats the lowest, showing that low- and mid-LG adult females engage in greater play dominance-related behavior. Likewise, low- and mid-LG rats spent significantly more time drinking following 24 hr of water deprivation in a water competition test thus allowing them to secure a limited resource more easily than high-LG rats. Interestingly, pinning by play dominant females was increased when subordinates were sexually receptive (proestrus/estrus), suggestive of a process of reproductive suppression. Some evidence suggests that low-LG and mid-LG rats also show greater fecundity than high-LG rats. Variations in maternal care may thus have a long-term influence on the development of play dominance and possibly social rank in the female rat, which might contribute to reproductive success within a competitive environment.

Effects of developmental exposure to bisphenol A on spatial navigational learning and memory in rats: A CLARITY-BPA study

“…This has been shown to occur in various rodent models where the dams are exposed to BPA and/or related EDC (Boudalia et al, 2014; Cummings et al, 2005; Della Seta et al, 2005; Engell et al, 2006; Johnson et al, 2015; Kundakovic et al, 2013; Palanza et al, 2002). Potential poor parenting received by the BPA-exposed pups may place them at risk for learning and memory deficiencies and other behavioral deficits (Birnie et al, 2013; Dougherty et al, 2013; Parent et al, 2013). We cannot exclude this potential confounder in the current study.…”

Intergenerational transmission of sociality: the role of parents in shaping social behavior in monogamous and non-monogamous species

“…Meanwhile, low licking/grooming offspring participate in more play fighting (Parent and Meaney, 2008) and may display increased dominance in adulthood compared with high licking/grooming offspring (Parent et al, 2013).…”

“…High licking/grooming offspring have lower levels of progesterone and luteinizing hormone during proestrus, decreased ERα expression in the PVN, and a decreased number of gonadotropinreleasing hormone immunoreactive (GnRH-ir) cells in the MPOA due to a decreased sensitivity to positive feedback of E (Cameron et al, 2008a;Sakhai et al, 2011). Perhaps not surprisingly, these high licking/grooming females also have decreased fecundity compared with low licking/grooming females (Cameron et al, 2008b;Parent et al, 2013). Engaging in high amounts of offspring care may come at a cost to reproduction so that females develop a strategy of either greater investment in offspring with fewer total offspring produced or decreased investment in many offspring (Stearns, 1976).…”

Early caregiving and human biobehavioral development: a comparative physiology approach

“…When remaining in the context of ecological adversity, increased reactivity and defensive adaptations may be advantageous for survival. For instance, in the rodent, female offspring of low- and mid- LG dams show play dominance and are particularly likely to engage in pinning behavior when female peers are in estrus, which may promote their social rank and reproductive advantage in competitive environments in which resources are scarce 42 . Female children of mothers who were rated as high in maternal harshness in early childhood were significantly more likely to reach menarche earlier, and early menarche was predictive of sexual risk-taking behavior 43 .…”