Paternal care

Psychology

Developmental psychology

Artificial intelligence

Neuroscience

Biology

Offspring

Computer science

Biological neural network

Control (management)

Cognitive science

Pregnancy

Genetics

Current Opinion in Neurobiology

Parenting is a multicomponent social behavior that is essential for the survival of offspring in many species. Despite extensive characterization of individual brain areas involved in parental care, we do not fully understand how discrete aspects of this behavior are orchestrated at the neural circuit level. Recent progress in identifying genetically specified neuronal populations critical for parenting, and the use of genetic and viral tools for circuit-cracking now allow us to deconstruct the underlying circuitry and, thus, to elucidate how different aspects of parental care are controlled. Here we review the latest advances, outline possible organizational principles of parental circuits and discuss future challenges.

Neural control of parental behaviors