Cortes Sánchez, Ma. del CarmenUgarte, AraceliTrujillo Hernández, AngélicaEguibar Cuenca, José RamónCarrasco, ÁngelesCepeda Freyre, Héctor AlejandroDorantes Nieto, María de los Ángeles2023-03-212023-03-212020-03-12https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12371/17864"Yawning is a stereotyped behavioral pattern characterized by wide opening of the mouth associated with deep inspiration followed by short expiration. All vertebrate species yawn, but with low frequencies. We obtained two sublines of Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats by a strict inbreeding process: one with a high-yawning frequency (HY) of 20 yawns/h, which is one order of magnitude higher with respect to the low-yawning frequency (LY) subline, with 2 yawns/h. Outbred SD rats had a yawning frequency of 1 yawn/h. HY dams had a different organization of maternal care with respect to that displayed by LY and SD dams because HY dams constructed lower quality nests and had more re-retrieving and atypical retrieving. The aim of this study was to analyze the changes in maternal care using in- and cross-fostering between the sublines and SD dams and to measure spontaneous and dopaminergic-induced yawning, penile erections, grooming and scratching bouts. Maternal care did not differ between sublines and SD dams independent of the litter they reared. However, LY rats reared by HY dams showed a significant increase in the number of spontaneous penile erections".engAnxietySexual behaviorMaternal careGroomingEpigeneticCross-fosteringDepressionScratchingArtículoopenAccess