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A battle between neural circuits for infanticide and maternal-care behaviours

A previously unknown neural circuit in the brains of female mice is activated during infanticidal behaviour, and reciprocally inhibits another circuit that promotes maternal-care behaviour. These circuits show opposing changes in excitability when female mice become mothers, explaining the switch in young-directed behaviours that occurs with motherhood.

This is a summary of: Mei, L. et al. Antagonistic circuits mediating infanticide and maternal care in female mice. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06147-9 (2023).

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01513-z

‘Expert opinion’ is published under a CC BY 4.0 licence.

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