Why might rats exposed to more licking and grooming from their mothers show less

Question

Why might rats exposed to more licking and grooming from their mothers show less fear and stress than rats not exposed to this grooming behavior? O The grooming behavior by the mothers altered the expression of stress-response genes O The grooming behavior by the mothers prevented chromosome rearrangements from occurring. O The groomed and ungroomed rats both have similar patterns of DNA methylation. O The grooming behavior by the mothers protected the offspring's DNA from mutation O The ungroomed rats had higher levels of DNA sequence changes than the groomed rats:

Explanation / Answer

Apparently, the grooming and licking behaviour of mothers as early as the first 10 days of the pups lifetime drastically alters the level of stress hormone in these babies and prepares them better for later challenges in life like stressful situations etc. This was studied by putting these rat pups in a closed small box and studying their stress levels and it was found that the adults who had been groomed more during the early period in their lives were better at coping with stressful situations than the ones which were not exposed.

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