Hush little baby, don't you cry: How aversion to infant distress calls drives caregiving.

Historically associated with aversion, the lateral habenula has a poorly characterized role in parenting. In this issue of Neuron, Lecca and colleagues show that these seemingly opposing roles converge in a subnucleus where aversion to pup cries may drive motivation for caregiving.

Urocortin-3 neurons in the perifornical area are critical mediators of chronic stress on female infant-directed behavior.

Infant avoidance and aggression are promoted by activation of the Urocortin-3 expressing neurons of the perifornical area of hypothalamus (PeFA) in male and female mice. PeFA neurons have been implicated in stress, and stress is known to reduce maternal behavior. We asked how chronic restraint stress (CRS) affects infant-directed behavior in virgin and lactating females and what role PeFA neurons play in this process.

neurons in the mouse perifornical area promote infant-directed neglect and aggression.

While recent studies have uncovered dedicated neural pathways mediating the positive control of parenting, the regulation of infant-directed aggression and how it relates to adult-adult aggression is poorly understood. Here we show that ()-expressing neurons in the hypothalamic perifornical area (PeFA) are activated during infant-directed attacks in males and females, but not other behaviors. Functional manipulations of PeFA neurons demonstrate the role of this population in the negative control of parenting in both sexes.

Cerebellar modulation of the reward circuitry and social behavior.

The cerebellum has been implicated in a number of nonmotor mental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, and addiction. However, its contribution to these disorders is not well understood. In mice, we found that the cerebellum sends direct excitatory projections to the ventral tegmental area (VTA), one of the brain regions that processes and encodes reward.