Studies in the rat directly link the maternal care environment to long-term effects on neural systems that regulate stress [6], [7] emotional function[8], [9], learning and memory [10], [11], [12] and neuroplasticity [10], [13], [14], [15].
Leading neuroscientist Dr. Michael Meaney from McGill University gave an engaging presentation on scientific evidence of how differences in maternal care and environment in the early years can modify an individual's brain development and the ability to deal with stress later in life.
It has been demonstrated that neonatal manipulations often modify absolute levels of maternal care [11], [23]; environment dependent variations in maternal care have been in turn proposed to be the true mediator of the observed adult offspring stress and fear responses [11].
Litter size and maternal diet influenced physical development and function more than PCB153 in perinatally exposed mouse pups and supports the developmental importance of maternal care and the social environment.
Hand rearing therefore alters several aspects of early life experience, including the quantity and quality of maternal care, the physical and social environment and the developmental diet.
Maternal care of pups in the hypergravity environment was intact as measured by licking, retrieving and nursing pups.
One of the main aims of this study was to achieve the development of a clinical decision support system (CDSS) for pregnancy care in resource-poor environments and to analyse its potential to positively impact upon the competence and motivation of maternal care providers as well as their work environment, thus improving the quality of care.
Taken together, these results indicate that mouse dams adjust specific aspects of maternal behaviour in response to the specific properties of their environment, and that active maternal care and nest site attendance are two aspects of maternal behaviour that may affect the offspring's stress and fear systems independent of each other and in a sex-specific way.
Thus, the more closely the patterns of maternal care predict the challenges of the adult environment, the better the offspring will be adapted to adult life conditions.
In order to provide such skilled maternal care, we need to have an enabling environment and skilled providers.
It is tempting to speculate that those clades with the least variation mediate critical pheromone-mediated behaviours, such as reproduction or maternal care, which are essential even in a laboratory environment.
