Sagol Department of Neurobiology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa, POB. 3338, Haifa, 3103301, Israel.
Commun Biol. 2024 Jan 2;7(1):2. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-05728-8.
Mammalian social behavior is highly context-sensitive. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms that modulate social behavior according to its context. Recent studies have revealed a network of mostly limbic brain regions which regulates social behavior. We hypothesize that coherent theta and gamma rhythms reflect the organization of this network into functional sub-networks in a context-dependent manner. To test this concept, we simultaneously record local field potential (LFP) from multiple social brain regions in adult male mice performing three social discrimination tasks. While LFP rhythmicity across all tasks is dominated by a global internal state, the pattern of theta coherence between the various regions reflect the behavioral task more than other variables. Moreover, Granger causality analysis implicate the ventral dentate gyrus as a main player in coordinating the context-specific rhythmic activity. Thus, our results suggest that the pattern of coordinated rhythmic activity within the network reflects the subject's social context.
哺乳动物的社会行为高度依赖于情境。然而，人们对于能够根据情境调节社会行为的机制知之甚少。最近的研究揭示了一个主要由边缘脑区组成的网络，该网络调节着社会行为。我们假设，连贯的θ波和γ波节律以情境依赖的方式反映了该网络的功能子网络的组织方式。为了验证这一概念，我们同时记录了成年雄性小鼠在执行三个社会辨别任务时的多个社会脑区的局部场电位（LFP）。虽然所有任务的 LFP 节律都由全局内部状态主导，但各个区域之间的θ波相干模式比其他变量更能反映行为任务。此外，格兰杰因果分析表明，腹侧齿状回是协调特定于情境的节律活动的主要参与者。因此，我们的研究结果表明，网络内协调的节律活动模式反映了主体的社会情境。
