TY - JOUR
T1 - Functional circuit architecture underlying parental behaviour
AU - Kohl, Johannes
AU - Babayan, Benedicte M.
AU - Rubinstein, Nimrod D.
AU - Autry, Anita E.
AU - Marin-Rodriguez, Brenda
AU - Kapoor, Vikrant
AU - Miyamishi, Kazunari
AU - Zweifel, Larry S.
AU - Luo, Liqun
AU - Uchida, Naoshige
AU - Dulac, Catherine
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2018/4/19
Y1 - 2018/4/19
N2 - Parenting is essential for the survival and wellbeing of mammalian offspring. However, we lack a circuit-level understanding of how distinct components of this behaviour are coordinated. Here we investigate how galanin-expressing neurons in the medial preoptic area (MPOAGal) of the hypothalamus coordinate motor, motivational, hormonal and social aspects of parenting in mice. These neurons integrate inputs from a large number of brain areas and the activation of these inputs depends on the animal's sex and reproductive state. Subsets of MPOAGal neurons form discrete pools that are defined by their projection sites. While the MPOAGal population is active during all episodes of parental behaviour, individual pools are tuned to characteristic aspects of parenting. Optogenetic manipulation of MPOAGal projections mirrors this specificity, affecting discrete parenting components. This functional organization, reminiscent of the control of motor sequences by pools of spinal cord neurons, provides a new model for how discrete elements of a social behaviour are generated at the circuit level.
AB - Parenting is essential for the survival and wellbeing of mammalian offspring. However, we lack a circuit-level understanding of how distinct components of this behaviour are coordinated. Here we investigate how galanin-expressing neurons in the medial preoptic area (MPOAGal) of the hypothalamus coordinate motor, motivational, hormonal and social aspects of parenting in mice. These neurons integrate inputs from a large number of brain areas and the activation of these inputs depends on the animal's sex and reproductive state. Subsets of MPOAGal neurons form discrete pools that are defined by their projection sites. While the MPOAGal population is active during all episodes of parental behaviour, individual pools are tuned to characteristic aspects of parenting. Optogenetic manipulation of MPOAGal projections mirrors this specificity, affecting discrete parenting components. This functional organization, reminiscent of the control of motor sequences by pools of spinal cord neurons, provides a new model for how discrete elements of a social behaviour are generated at the circuit level.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41586-018-0027-0
DO - 10.1038/s41586-018-0027-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 29643503
AN - SCOPUS:85045549806
SN - 0028-0836
VL - 556
SP - 326
EP - 331
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
IS - 7701
ER -