How Baby Cries Connect to Maternal Hormones – Unveiling the Oxytocin Circuit

ByThe Short Paper

Neural circuitry for maternal oxytocin release induced by infant cries

Oxytocin is a hormone important for maternal and childcare functions like childbirth and nursing. New research in mice reveals a neural circuit that connects the sounds of infant vocalizations to oxytocin-producing neurons in the brain. These neurons respond to baby cries and help regulate maternal behavior. The study uncovers how sensory cues from offspring activate oxytocin networks in mothers.

Valtcheva, S., Issa, H.A., Bair-Marshall, C.J. et al. Neural circuitry for maternal oxytocin release induced by infant cries. Nature (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06540-4

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06540-4#citeas

Similar Posts

Child wasting and concurrent stunting in low- and middle-income countries

ByThe Short Paper

The goal is to end child malnutrition by 2030, which includes tackling “child wasting,” where kids are too thin for their height. Traditional methods for measuring this problem only give a snapshot, missing when it starts and ends. This study looked at data from 21 groups of children and found that child wasting is a…

Simple Summary – Risk Factors for Mortality in Patients With COVID-19 in New York City

ByThe Short Paper

Link to the article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32607928/ This was a retrospective study taking place in New York City looking at 6,493 patients positive for COVID-19. They looked at specific vital signs and laboratory values and found low blood pressure, increased heart rate, low oxygen, kidney function, and increased D-dimer had increased hazard ratios. Being female, African-American, and hydroxychloroquine…

One-year changes in sugar-sweetened beverage consumers’ purchases following implementation of a beverage tax: a longitudinal quasi-experiment

ByThe Short Paper

Article This study compared two cities to one another, Baltimore and Philadelphia, after implementation of a beverage tax in Philadelphia. They looked at receipts of all participants for a two week period at pre-tax, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months. Statistically significant reductions of taxed beverage purchases at 3 and 6 months, but not…

Global Increase in Wildfire-Driven Air Pollution and Its Impact on Human Health

ByThe Short Paper

Global population exposure to landscape fire air pollution from 2000 to 2019 Wildfires, worsened by climate change, are becoming more severe and frequent. The smoke they produce, which can harm human health, hasn’t been well understood globally. Using advanced models and machine learning, scientists estimated that from 2000 to 2019, people around the world were…

Vitamin D insufficiency as a potential culprit in critical COVID-19 patients

ByThe Short Paper

Article They looked at the mean vitamin D serum level of 1,368 patients. The study found 634 patients with poor prognosis and 669 patients with good prognosis. Patients with a poor prognosis  had much lower serum levels of vitamin D than compared to those with good prognosis; this was statistically significant. TL;DR Patients with a…

Infants with big appetites: The role of a nonfood environment on infant appetitive traits linked to obesity

ByThe Short Paper

Article The researchers looked at the literature and found that infants between the ages of 9-18 months were influenced by food focused activities as well as non-food activities. These activities could help influence whether the infants would possibly become obese in the future. They suggested developing fun non-food focused activities (playing with bubbles, musical instruments) mitigated…