Experience-dependent maternal defense behavior mediated by profrontal cortical projections to the medial preoptic area in mice

Kaibin Wu, Peiwen Tang, Yuwei Wang, Fangcai Mai, Yidi Pan, Li I. Zhang, Huizhong W. Tao and Feixue Liang ()
Additional contact information
Kaibin Wu: Southern Medical University
Peiwen Tang: Southern Medical University
Yuwei Wang: Southern Medical University
Fangcai Mai: Southern Medical University
Yidi Pan: Southern Medical University
Li I. Zhang: University of Southern California
Huizhong W. Tao: University of Southern California
Feixue Liang: Southern Medical University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: Abstract Maternal defense, a hallmark of motherhood, often involves protecting offspring at personal risk. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the emergence and modulation of this behavior remain not-well understood. Here, we introduce a novel paradigm in which mother mice under threat prioritize offspring protection over self-preservation by approaching, collecting, and retreating pups to safety, a risk-associated behavior that also develops in virgin females following maternal experience. Microendoscopic calcium imaging reveals sequential activation of distinct corticofugal neuronal populations in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during maternal defense. Specifically, layer (L)6 dopamine receptor D1-expressing (D1) neurons are active during pup approach, while L5 neurons are engaged during pup collection and retreat. Activation of the L6 neurons bidirectionally modulates maternal defense via projections to the medial preoptic area. These findings suggest that mPFC L6 D1 neurons may facilitate the transition to maternal behavior by influencing behavioral selection and initiating maternal defense response under threat.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63062-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-63062-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63062-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().