MOTHERS who feel no attachment to their newborn babies may lack
a neural pathway that is normally triggered by the act of giving
birth, a new study of mice suggests. The maternal skills of
female mice genetically predisposed to neglect their young
improve for good if they receive a burst of key neural chemicals
shortly before giving birth, say researchers in Seattle. And
while the factors that cause some women to reject their babies
at birth remain unclear, the study hints that a carefully timed
dose of drugs might, in some cases, free them from this misery.
Most mice make doting parents. Even those with no experience of
raising pups, such as virgin females or young males, will
shepherd strays back to the nest. But Steven Thomas and Richard
Palmiter of the University of Washington studied mice in which a
gene called To continue reading this article, subscribe to
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