Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2026
Using Chronic Social Stress to Model Postpartum Depression in Lactating Rodents
Published on: June 10, 2013
The reward system and maternal behavior in an animal model of depression: a microdialysis study
Yael Lavi-Avnon1, Aron Weller, John P M Finberg
1Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Rationale And Objectives:
Flinders sensitive line (FSL) rats, an animal model of depression, display a different pattern of maternal behavior compared to Sprague-Dawley (SD) controls. In this study, we examined the rewarding value of mother-infant interaction for FSL dams.
Materials And Methods:
In the main study, we measured monoamine levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of early postpartum FSL and SD dams during an interaction with pups, using the microdialysis technique. In addition, we compared the preference patterns of FSL and SD rats using the conditioned place preference paradigm, with pups as the unconditioned stimuli.
Results:
Dopamine (DA) levels in dialysates from the NAc of SD dams but not FSL dams were elevated while interacting with pups but the metabolism of DA to dihydroxyphenylacetic acid was greater in FSL than in SD dams. While SD dams showed a conditioned preference for a region that was associated with SD pups, FSL dams did not show a preference for regions associated either with SD or FSL pups, but water deprived FSL rats demonstrated a preference to a region associated with water, eliminating an alternative explanation of learning deficit in FSL rats.
Conclusions:
Taken together, these results suggest that FSL dams are less rewarded by pups, compared to control dams.
