Summary
Maternal behaviours, which are crucial for the survival of mammalian infants1, can be learned2,3. How the efficient acquisition of these behaviours is implemented at the neural circuitry level remains poorly understood. Although prevalent models of neural circuits for parental behaviours often assume the frontal cortical network as an integrator of infant-related sensory signals and a controller of decision-making and motivation1,4, these ideas have not been functionally tested. As such, detailed input/output neural circuit organizations of the frontal cortex in relation to parental behaviours remain unknown. Here we show that the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) promotes efficient learning of maternal behaviours in virgin female mice when they are co-housed with lactating mothers. Chronic microendoscopy in freely behaving animals reveals robust representations of pup-directed anticipatory activities and ongoing sequential motions of pup retrieval that are innately sculpted and largely unaffected by learning. Through viral tracing and manipulations, we functionally identify the submedius thalamus as a prominent presynaptic partner of the OFC that shapes pup-related representations. Optogenetic inactivation of OFC reduces the pup retrieval-related activities of midbrain dopamine neurons5,6 that promote maternal behaviours. Collectively, these findings reveal a higher-order cognitive network that connects innately formed, pup-related integrated representation to the top-down control of motivation centers, thus enabling efficient maternal behavioural learning.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
We have corrected a spelling error (leaning should be read as "learning") in the title. Also, Fig. S3 was updated to correct a minor error in the display.