Stimulus And Response Of Lactation In Mammals

Olfaction was also found to play a role in lactation with regard to the hormone prolactin.

Stimulus and response of lactation in mammals. It promotes the secretion of prolactin and possibly other pituitary hormones of value in milk formation and it triggers the release of yet another hormone from the pituitary gland oxytocin which causes the contraction of special muscle cells around the alveoli in the breast and ensures the expulsion of milk. In most species milk comes out of the mother s nipples. It acts in two ways.

However the platypus a non placental mammal releases milk through ducts in its abdomen. This stimulates the glands to produce milk in response to suckling from a newborn. The process naturally occurs with all post pregnancy female mammals although it predates mammals in humans the process of feeding milk is also called breastfeeding or nursing newborn infants often produce some milk from their own breast tissue known colloquially.

In almost all mammals lactation induces a period of infertility which serves to provide the optimal birth spacing for survival of the offspring. Because bulbectomy abolished the corticoid response to pups and because other controls ruled out visual and probably auditory effects olfactory stimuli were viewed as being necessary for the sustained corticosterone response typical of the lactating rat. The hypothalamus signals the anterior pituitary to secrete prolactin.

Lactation describes the secretion of milk from the mammary glands and the period of time that a mother lactates to feed her young.