Mother-young bond in non-human mammals: Neonatal communication pathways and neurobiological basis

Daniel Mota-Rojas; Cécile Bienboire-Frosini; Míriam Marcet-Rius; Adriana Domínguez-Oliva; Patricia Mora-Medina; Karina Lezama-García; Agustín Orihuela

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1064444

Mother-young bond in non-human mammals: Neonatal communication pathways and neurobiological basis

Front Psychol. 2022 Nov 29:13:1064444. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1064444. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Daniel Mota-Rojas¹, Cécile Bienboire-Frosini², Míriam Marcet-Rius³, Adriana Domínguez-Oliva¹, Patricia Mora-Medina⁴, Karina Lezama-García¹, Agustín Orihuela⁵

Affiliations

¹ Neurophysiology, Behavior and Animal Welfare Assessment, DPAA, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Xochimilco Campus, Mexico City, Mexico.
² Department of Molecular Biology and Chemical Communication, Research Institute in Semiochemistry and Applied Ethology (IRSEA), Apt, France.
³ Animal Behaviour and Welfare Department, Research Institute in Semiochemistry and Applied Ethology (IRSEA), Apt, France.
⁴ Facultad de Estudios Superiores Cuautitlán, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico.
⁵ Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Abstract

Mother-young bonding is a process by which the young establish social preferences for their mother. It fosters reproductive success and the survival of offspring by providing food, heat, and maternal care. This process promotes the establishment of the mother-young bond through the interaction of olfactory, auditory, tactile, visual, and thermal stimuli. The neural integration of multimodal sensory stimuli and attachment is coordinated into motor responses. The sensory and neurobiological mechanisms involved in filial recognition in precocial and altricial mammals are summarized and analyzed in this review.

Keywords: bonding; licking; maternal recognition; olfactory; sensitive period; visual; vocalization.

Publication types

Review