Title: | Specific Hypothalamic Neurons Required for Sensing Conspecific Male Cues Relevant to Inter-male Aggression |
Author(s): | Chen AX; Yan JJ; Zhang W; Wang L; Yu ZX; Ding XJ; Wang DY; Zhang M; Zhang YL; Song N; Jiao ZL; Xu C; Zhu SJ; Xu XH; |
Address: | "Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence Technology, Shanghai 200031, China. Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence Technology, Shanghai 200031, China. Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence Technology, Shanghai 200031, China. Electronic address: xiaohong.xu@ion.ac.cn" |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.08.025 |
ISSN/ISBN: | 1097-4199 (Electronic) 0896-6273 (Linking) |
Abstract: | "The hypothalamus regulates innate social interactions, but how hypothalamic neurons transduce sex-related sensory signals emitted by conspecifics to trigger appropriate behaviors remains unclear. Here, we addressed this issue by identifying specific hypothalamic neurons required for sensing conspecific male cues relevant to inter-male aggression. By in vivo recording of neuronal activities in behaving mice, we showed that neurons expressing dopamine transporter (DAT(+)) in the ventral premammillary nucleus (PMv) of the hypothalamus responded to male urine cues in a vomeronasal organ (VNO)-dependent manner in naive males. Retrograde trans-synaptic tracing further revealed a specific group of neurons in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) that convey male-relevant signals from VNO to PMv. Inhibition of PMv(DAT+) neurons abolished the preference for male urine cues and reduced inter-male attacks, while activation of these neurons promoted urine marking and aggression. Thus, PMv(DAT+) neurons exemplify a hypothalamic node that transforms sex-related chemo-signals into recognition and behaviors" |
Keywords: | "Aggression/physiology/*psychology Animals Clozapine/analogs & derivatives/pharmacology *Cues Female Hypothalamus, Posterior/*physiology Male Mice Neurons/*physiology Rats Septal Nuclei/physiology Urine/*physiology Vomeronasal Organ/physiology Bnst Dat MUP;Neuroscience;" |
Notes: | "MedlineChen, Ai-Xiao Yan, Jing-Jing Zhang, Wen Wang, Lei Yu, Zi-Xian Ding, Xiao-Jing Wang, Dan-Yang Zhang, Min Zhang, Yan-Li Song, Nan Jiao, Zhuo-Lei Xu, Chun Zhu, Shu-Jia Xu, Xiao-Hong eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2020/09/23 Neuron. 2020 Nov 25; 108(4):763-774.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.08.025. Epub 2020 Sep 21" |