Patterns of Parental Behavior: From Animal Science to Comparative Ethology and Neuroscience

Modern neuroscience has presented new opportunities for exploring the molecular and neural mechanisms controlling specific social responses. This book reviews insights into the neural circuits underlying a particularly fascinating form of social interaction, parental behavior. This book presents a detailed review of maternal and paternal behavior of particular mammalian species. It offer neuroscientists a spectrum of specific mammals that can be used as experimental models to explore particular topics on the functions of the nervous system. It shows that results coming from the laboratory can be translated into useful information for raising mammals on the farm, and it stimulates biologists to gain insights into the underpinnings of the complex mechanisms governing mammalian behavior in the wild. It also discusses the implications of this research for human parental behavior.