Shared neural substrates of prosocial and parenting behaviours

"Mice with higher levels of parenting exhibit more prosocial allogrooming toward stressed adults. The medial preoptic area (MPOA), a brain area involved in parenting behaviour, bidirectionally regulates allogrooming toward stressed conspecifics. Allogrooming and parenting behaviours recruit a partially overlapping neuronal ensemble in the MPOA, are both controlled by an MPOAtoVTA pathway and are associated with dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens."

"Using activity-dependent labeling, we demonstrate that MPOA neuronal ensembles engaged during parenting behaviours are functionally required for allogrooming. Conversely, MPOA neurons activated during prosocial behaviour are functionally required for pup grooming. Collectively, these findings uncover a neural circuit mechanism of prosocial behaviour and reveal partially shared neural substrates between parenting and prosocial behaviours."

"Although prosocial behaviour is hypothesized to have an evolutionary root in caring for vulnerable newborn offspring, whether the neural substrates underlying parenting may contribute to adult-directed prosocial behaviours remains largely unclear. These findings suggest that the neural systems evolved for offspring care may have provided a scaffold for the emergence of broader prosocial support."

Mice exhibiting higher parenting levels demonstrate increased prosocial allogrooming toward stressed adults. The medial preoptic area (MPOA) bidirectionally regulates allogrooming in stressed individuals. Parenting and allogrooming behaviors activate partially overlapping neuronal ensembles within the MPOA, both controlled by an MPOA-to-VTA pathway associated with dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Activity-dependent labeling reveals that MPOA neuronal ensembles engaged during parenting are functionally necessary for allogrooming, while neurons activated during prosocial behavior are required for pup grooming. These findings demonstrate shared neural substrates between parenting and prosocial behaviors, indicating that neural systems evolved for offspring care provided a foundation for broader prosocial support mechanisms.

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