Department of Basic Neuroscience, University of Geneva, 1 Rue Michel-Servet, 1205, Genève, Switzerland.
Brain Plasticity Unit, CNRS UMR 8249, ESPCI, PSL Research University, Paris, France.
Nat Commun. 2022 Feb 10;13(1):817. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-28512-4.
Social behaviours characterize cooperative, mutualistic, aggressive or parental interactions that occur among conspecifics. Although the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) has been identified as a key substrate for social behaviours, the input and output pathways dedicated to specific aspects of conspecific interaction remain understudied. Here, in male mice, we investigated the activity and function of two distinct VTA inputs from superior colliculus (SC-VTA) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC-VTA). We observed that SC-VTA neurons display social interaction anticipatory calcium activity, which correlates with orienting responses towards an unfamiliar conspecific. In contrast, mPFC-VTA neuron population activity increases after initiation of the social contact. While protracted phasic stimulation of SC-VTA pathway promotes head/body movements and decreases social interaction, inhibition of this pathway increases social interaction. Here, we found that SC afferents mainly target a subpopulation of dorsolateral striatum (DLS)-projecting VTA dopamine (DA) neurons (VTA-DLS). While, VTA-DLS pathway stimulation decreases social interaction, VTA-Nucleus Accumbens stimulation promotes it. Altogether, these data support a model by which at least two largely anatomically distinct VTA sub-circuits oppositely control distinct aspects of social behaviour.
社会行为特征是同种个体之间发生的合作、互利、攻击或亲代相互作用。虽然腹侧被盖区（VTA）已被确定为社会行为的关键基质，但专门用于同种相互作用特定方面的输入和输出途径仍未得到充分研究。在这里，我们在雄性小鼠中研究了来自上丘（SC-VTA）和内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC-VTA）的两个不同 VTA 输入的活动和功能。我们观察到 SC-VTA 神经元显示出社交互动预期的钙活动，这与对陌生同种个体的定向反应相关。相比之下，mPFC-VTA 神经元群体的活动在社交接触开始后增加。虽然 SC-VTA 通路的延长相位刺激促进头部/身体运动并减少社交互动，但抑制该通路会增加社交互动。在这里，我们发现 SC 传入主要靶向投射到背外侧纹状体（DLS）的 VTA 多巴胺（DA）神经元的 VTA-DLS 神经元的一个亚群（VTA-DLS）。虽然 VTA-DLS 通路刺激减少社交互动，但 VTA-伏隔核刺激促进社交互动。总之，这些数据支持了一种模型，即至少两个在解剖上基本不同的 VTA 亚电路相反地控制着社会行为的不同方面。
