ABSTRACT
In the case of maternal behaviour, the challenge of providing a description of the underlying computational or cognitive characterization of the relevant brain systems such as the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus is formidable. There can be little doubt that non-genetic determinants of behaviour are very powerful. In addition to demonstrations of the inter-generational transmission of environmentally induced individual differences in maternal behaviour, D. Francis and her colleagues have shown that such basic cognitive capacities as learning and memory can be powerfully modulated by environmental interventions. A major challenge to researchers studying maternal behaviour will be to try to increase the specificity of the functions they attribute to different brain systems so as to allow those functions to be computationally implemented. While genetic influence on a vast range of behaviours and cognition has been amply demonstrated in classic twin studies, environmental influences are equally easy to demonstrate.
