Social behaviors Archives

Genetically- and spatially-defined basolateral amygdala neurons control food consumption and social interaction

Hansol Lim et al.
bioRxiv | October 17, 2023
The basolateral amygdala (BLA) contains discrete neuronal circuits that integrate positive or negative emotional information and drive the appropriate innate and learned behaviors. Whether these circuits consist of...

A neural circuit for male sexual behavior and reward

Daniel W. Bayless et al.
Cell | August 11, 2023
A study conducted by Bayless et al. explores the neural basis of innate male sexual behavior and its rewarding nature. Using nVista for calcium imaging and fiber photometry, the researchers identified a developmentally...

A neural mechanism for discriminating social threat from social safety

Pegah Kassraian et al.
bioRxiv | July 27, 2023
The ability to distinguish a threatening from non-threatening conspecific based on past experience is critical for adaptive social behaviors. Although recent progress has been made in identifying the neural circuits...

Self-organization of songbird neural sequences during social isolation

Emily L Mackevicius et al.
eLife | May 30, 2023
Emily L. Mackevicius et al., using the Inscopix nVista tool, investigated whether the formation of sequences in the high vocal center (HVC) of songbirds depends on prior exposure to a tutor song. They found that even in...

Adolescent stress impairs postpartum social behavior via anterior insula-prelimbic pathway in mice

Kyohei Kin et al.
Nature Communications | May 23, 2023
In a recent study by Kyohei Kin et al., the impact of adolescent psychosocial stress on postpartum social behavior was examined. Using innovative techniques such as optogenetics and in vivo microendoscopic calcium...

Sex differences in neural representations of social and nonsocial reward in the medial prefrontal cortex

Jennifer Isaac et al.
bioRxiv | March 10, 2023
The reinforcing nature of social interactions is necessary for the maintenance of appropriate social behavior. However, the neural substrates underlying social reward and whether these are shared with competing...

Hypothalamic neurons that mirror aggression

Taehong Yang et al.
Cell | February 15, 2023
Social interactions require awareness and understanding of the behavior of others. Mirror neurons, cells representing an action by self and others, have been proposed to be integral to the cognitive substrates that...

Hyperexcited limbic neurons represent sexual satiety and reduce mating motivation

XIAOJUAN ZHOU et al.
Science | February 9, 2023
Transient sexual experiences can have long-lasting effects on behavioral decisions, but the neural coding that accounts for this change is unclear. We found that ejaculation experience selectively activated estrogen...

Touch neurons underlying dopaminergic pleasurable touch and sexual receptivity

Leah J. Elias et al.
Cell | February 2, 2023
Pleasurable touch is paramount during social behavior, including sexual encounters. However, the identity and precise role of sensory neurons that transduce sexual touch remain unknown. A population of sensory neurons...

Disruption of hippocampal neuronal circuit function depends upon behavioral state in the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease

Heng Zhou et al.
Scientific Reports | December 6, 2022
The Alzheimer’s disease-associated peptide amyloid-beta (Aβ) has been associated with neuronal hyperactivity under anesthesia, but clinical trials of anticonvulsants or neural system suppressors have, so far,...

Transformations of neural representations in a social behavioral network

Bin Yang et al.
Nature | August 3, 2022
Mating and aggression are innate social behaviours that are controlled by subcortical circuits in the extended amygdala and hypothalamus. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNSTpr) is a node that receives input...

Inscopix Publications

Publication Category: Social behaviors