Document Detail


Mother is not like mother: Concurrent pregnancy reduces lactating guinea pigs' responsiveness to pup calls.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  19879338     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Offspring signalling can serve to communicate need to the parents and thus influence parental readiness to provide care. Offspring stimuli that affect parental care have been investigated extensively. Yet much less is known about the mechanisms leading to a decline in maternal motivation when conflicts of provisioning current and future offspring may arise. Here we tested responses by pregnant and non-pregnant female guinea pigs (Cavia aperea f. porcellus) to playback of pup calls during their period of lactation for dependent offspring. Most concurrently pregnant and lactating females did not respond to pup calls, whereas non-pregnant lactating females responded strongly. Our findings expand on previous studies by showing that female behavioural responsiveness to pup stimuli is strongly reduced by concurrent pregnancy and lactation. These instantaneous measurements of female responsiveness to young show more directly than standard measures like nursing performance or time to weaning how female motivation to care for current offspring is diminished by simultaneous gestation.
Authors:
Marc Naguib; Melanie Kober; Fritz Trillmich
Related Documents :
7548178 - Expression of fatty acid binding protein in the liver during pregnancy and lactation in...
20335428 - Pregnancy-associated breast cancer: spectrum of imaging appearances.
22043438 - Spontaneous rupture of umbilical hernia in pregnancy: a case report.
7943428 - Pre- and postnatal effects of photoperiod on collared lemmings (dicrostonyx groenlandic...
737928 - Meeting the special needs of pregnant teenagers.
16423378 - Transformations of dissolved organic matter in a landfill leachate--a size exclusion ch...
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't     Date:  2009-10-29
Journal Detail:
Title:  Behavioural processes     Volume:  83     ISSN:  1872-8308     ISO Abbreviation:  Behav. Processes     Publication Date:  2010 Jan 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-02-01     Completed Date:  2010-03-10     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  7703854     Medline TA:  Behav Processes     Country:  Netherlands    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  79-81     Citation Subset:  IM    
Copyright Information:
2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Behaviour, University Bielefeld, Germany. m.naguib@nioo.knaw.nl
Export Citation:
APA/MLA Format     Download EndNote     Download BibTex
MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Animal Communication*
Animals
Behavior, Animal*
Choice Behavior
Female
Guinea Pigs
Maternal Behavior*
Pregnancy
Pregnancy, Animal
Vocalization, Animal

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


Previous Document:  Resting State Cortical Rhythms In Athletes: A High-Resolution Eeg Study.
Next Document:  Consistency, transitivity and inter-relationships between measures of choice in environmental prefer...