entirely prevented. The BNSTpr also opposes the activity of another brain region promoting maternal behaviors, with shifts in these regions’ activities correlating with changes in infanticidal tendencies.
Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study showed that chemically blocking the region, called the principal nucleus of the bed nucleus of stria terminalis , prevented infanticide nearly 100% of the time. By contrast, when the study team artificially activated the brain region, both mothers and females without offspring killed pups in nearly all trials, attacking within a second of the stimulation.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, child abuse is the fourth leading cause of death among preschool children in the United States. Mei notes that while early studies had largely focused on potential problems in the parenting centers of the brain, experts have more recently begun to search for a separate system dedicated to infanticide and aggression against children.
“Since these two connecting regions in the middle of the brain can be found in both rodents and humans alike, our findings hint at a possible target for understanding, and perhaps even treating, mothers who abuse their children,” said study senior author and neuroscientist Dayu Lin, PhD.