Nongenomic transmission across generations of maternal behavior and stressresponses in the rat

In the rat, variations in maternal care appear to influence the development of behavioral and endocrine responses to stress in the offspring. The resu lts of cross-fostering studies reported here provide evidence for (i) a cau sal relationship between maternal behavior and stress reactivity in the off spring and (ii) the transmission of such individual differences in maternal behavior from one generation of females to the next. Moreover, an environm ental manipulation imposed during early development that alters maternal be havior can then affect the pattern of transmission in subsequent generation s. Taken together, these findings indicate that variations in maternal care can serve as the basis for a nongenomic behavioral transmission of individ ual differences in stress reactivity across generations.