Scientists who Discovered the “Parenting Instinct”

Catherine Dulac, a Neurobiologist at Harvard University, has long been fascinated by the instinctive motion of creatures to nurture their young babies.

The 57-year-old French woman was honoured on Thursday for her work in discovering the mechanism that drives parenting in the brain circuits of rats. Her findings lay the foundation for further research into other mammals, such as humans.

She is one of seven scientists who won the Science Breakthrough Award in life sciences, mathematics, and basic physics in 2021. The awards were created by several IT titans, to recognise the year's breakthrough scientific discoveries.

Each winner gets $3 million, about three times as much as the Nobel Prize.

Ms. Drucker, a Harvard professor who also works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, wanted to understand the deep biological mechanism by which female mice instinctively raise their young mice and male mice tend to kill them -- a behaviour that usually occurs in males who have never mated.

Drucker found that the neural circuits that control this behaviour exist in both sexes. But the hormonal changes act as a switch that causes both sexes to behave in opposite ways.

That is why brutal males tend to look after their later generations after they became fathers, or mothers kill their children under stressful conditions.

Drucker told AFP, “We think what we have found can be extended to other species, including human beings.” It's an instinct, and the instinct the function of these neurons, and I reckon they exist in all mammals.”

But Drucker repeatedly said that her findings apply only to mice. “I'm a scientist. I stress the data. I remain neutral.”

This scientist immigrated to America from France 25 years ago. Because she found that because of qualifications and gender issues in France, she could not have her own laboratory. She believes the United States preceds France in promoting gender equality.