Lactating rats exhibit stable individual differences in pup licking/grooming. We used in vivo voltammetry to monitor changes in extracellular dopamine (DA) in the nucleus accumbens (n. Acc) shell of lactating rats interacting with pups and found that (1) the DA signal increased significantly with pup licking/grooming; (2) the onset of such increases preceded pup licking/grooming; and (3) the ma...

In this issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology, Gutierrez et al. (p. 119–133) show that neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex play a critical role in organizing the consummatory response of licking (Gutierrez et al. 2005). Using both muscimol-induced reversible lesions and single unit ensemble recording, they show that orbitofrontal cortex neurons code the palatability or rewarding properties of...

Behavioral suppression is observed when animals shift from a high to a lower magnitude of reward in comparison to animals that continuously receive the lower magnitude reward. As previously reported, systemic administration of benzodiazepines promotes recovery from this negative contrast. This study aimed to assess where the neural substrate(s) located in the limbic areas for diazepam to induce...

Variations in maternal care have been widely considered as a critical influence in development. In the rat, variations in maternal behavior, particularly in licking/grooming, regulate the development of endocrine, emotional and cognitive responses to stress. These studies form the basis of a potentially useful model for the study of maternal effects in mammals. In this paper we provide a detail...

Numerous viruses cause latent infections in humans, and reactivation often results in pain and suffering. While vaccines for several of these viruses are available or currently being studied in clinical trials, and antiviral therapies have been successful in preventing or treating active infection, therapy to eradicate latent infection has lagged behind. A new study reported in this issue of th...

Naturally occurring variations in maternal licking/grooming influence neural development and are transmitted from mother to female offspring. We found that the induction of maternal behavior in virgin females through constant exposure to pups (pup sensitization) was significantly shorter in the offspring of High compared with Low licking/grooming mothers, suggesting differences in maternal resp...