The Effects Of Maternal Behavior On Mother Rats Essay

Anyone looking for a new pet wants a pet that is clean, socialized and well trained. Most people don't know that these are all qualities of pet rats!

In the story “Puppy” by George Saunders, one reads about the life of two very different mothers. Introduced first is Marie, an upper-class woman who acts like her children. Secondly, there is Callie who is a working-class woman with a somber tone. While both women have very different lives they have a great deal in common such as their kids have behavioral disorders and both had parental issues growing up which makes them imperfect parents. Even though the story talks about the lives of both women more compassion is shown towards Marie’s character. Although Callie is revealed to be just as remarkable as Marie in the second section, she comes off as secondary to Marie’s character throughout the story. Saunders created Marie with an emotional

When the rat baby has a good mom that licks it a lot the rat then gets better parenting skills when that said rat has babies. Depending on how well the nurture was is how well of a parent the rat will be later in life.

What is it like to be a barn rat? A barn rat is probably a term that you have never

The prenatal period is when quick changes in the fetal organs are vulnerable to organizing change and stability but also building internal working system to trigger emotional responses (McEwen et al. 2013). It is a critical time for brain development and the PFC (McEwen et al. 2013). It exposes a selection of long -term modifications on brain development and behaviour (Entringer et al. 2009). Prenatal exposure to stress affects hormones in the body including the physiology and anatomy that relate to increasing drug levels, cortical communication and more (Entringer et al. 2009). Fetal stress is any event that interrupts a fetal process in stability in the body. (Entringer et al. 2009). During pregnancy, maternal stress impends the fetal nervous system and shortens the length of maturation due to many issues and concerns affecting the mother (Entringer et al. 2009). During pregnancy, maternal psychosocial stress threatens the fetal nervous system and contracts the length of gestation (Entringer et al. 2009). High levels of placental corticotrophin- releasing hormone

It is fascinating to me that one's body, even as a newbown, has strategies in place to protect itself when necessary. For example, "if nutrition is temporality inadequate, the body stops growing but not the brain," a phenomenon called head-sparing (124). On a different note, I did not realize before reading the chapeter that there are different types of learning that are dependent on experience. There is a difference between experience-expectant brain function, which is "brain function that requires certain basic common experiences in order to develop normally," and experience-dependent brain function, "brain function that depends on particular, variable experiences and that therefore may or may not develop in a particular infant," according to scientist William Greenough (131).

Studies on rats revealed baby rats that had a nurturing mother during periods of stress we calmer and less aggressive later in life. Baby rats that did not receive that nurturing during stressful events had an increase in blood pressure, increase in stress hormone production and later in life where more aggressive. (Meany, M. Nova, 2013) Miles O’Brien, a “research team has followed about 60 families over 30 years. Although there is not just one way to build attachment, certain patterns became clear.”

When focusing on the Mother in, We the Animals, you can see the abusive relationship she has with her husband, her damaged bond with her Sons, and what her demeanor is like throughout the novel. Justin Torres utilizes many animal metaphors when physically describing the Mother and also uses them to show her mental state at times. The act of comparing different animals and their behaviors to the Mother and her behavior, reveals her vulnerability and frail features she possesses as a young mother.

When a woman gives birth there is a massive change in her hormones, and these changes evoke maternal behavior [2]. For example, oxytocin also known as the “bonding hormone or the love hormone” is a chemical messenger that is released into the brain in response to social contact, it’s especially noticeable with skin-to skin contact such as breast-feeding [2]. Oxytocin not only provides health benefits, but it also promotes bonding, such as between a breast feeding mother and her infant, and creates a desire for more contact with the individual evoking the release [2]. However, it’s not necessary for maternal behavior

In general gestation periods for primates are relatively long, allowing for the development of a more complex brain. Also the more sophisticated species exhibit longer infant and juvenile stages, which are related to the time required for a more advanced mental development. Primates usually have a closer infant/mother bond and a longer childhood than other animals. During the time a primate is an infant and child it learns from its mother of how to survive in the environment. Primates also learn what to eat, where to find food, how to eat different foods, mating rituals, social structure, and females also learn maternal behavior. While still in the uterus, the brain starts growing. Thus the longer the gestation period, the larger the relative size of the brain will be in the infant. It is assumed that the more time spent in infancy and childhood, the more an animal learns. There is a direct correlation to length of the gestation period, infancy and childhood development, and lifespan in primates.

Does the transition from maternal care to nonparental childcare cause stress that is reflected both behaviorally and in cortisol levels?

Another important part of this study was looking at how these effects occurred during different stages of prenatal development, as the “consequences of prenatal maternal stress were determined by the

Although Harlow was able to provide evidence that related to the infant-mother attachment in monkeys, it cannot relate to humans as a result of the laboratory conditions and sample size used in Harlow’s Monkey Study. Lastly, I personally believe that by either replacing the surrogate mother with either an adoptive mother or their father and by providing a more natural environment for the Rhesus Monkeys, it will allow Harlow’s study to be more accurate and reliable by increasing the Ecological Validity and allowing the study to be more

Technological advances in the past decade have allowed scientists to study the brain in ways that have led to new understanding about how young children develop. There is a new understanding of both the capabilities and the vulnerabilities of infants and young children and that understanding is has influenced the work of caregivers and teachers. During pregnancy, the basic architecture of the brain is formed. Although, certain experiences do influence the developing brain during pregnancy, such as maternal health and stress, intake of drugs and/or alcohol, and quality of maternal nutrition.

According to scientists at Yale University, in giving birth, there’s a special protein that can boost intelligence levels and the quantity of the protein is much higher in babies born naturally. The increased levels of the protein, called UCP2, in babies born naturally could affect their short and long term memories as they grow up. They discovered the specific protein after they conducted a study in mice’s’ brains specifically the hippocampus which plays important roles in absorbing information from short-term memory to long term memory and spatial navigation. As a result, normally delivered mice were found to have lower levels of UCP2 which caused them to suffer impaired adult behaviors.