Trives Elliott, Porte Chantal, Nakahara Thiago Seike, Keller Matthieu, Vacher Hélène, Chamero Pablo
Laboratoire de Physiologie de la Reproduction et des Comportements, INRAE, CNRS, Université de Tours, 37380 Nouzilly, France.
Laboratoire de Physiologie de la Reproduction et des Comportements, INRAE, CNRS, Université de Tours, 37380 Nouzilly, France.
Horm Behav. 2025 Apr;170:105723. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2025.105723. Epub 2025 Mar 18.
Aromatase (Aro+) neurons located in the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis (BNST) are crucial for the display of both sexual behavior and territorial aggression in naive male mice. The postero-dorsal part of the Medial Amygdala (MeApd) also contains Aro + neurons that are required for territorial aggression, but these neurons seem dispensable for the display of sexual behavior in naive animals. However, little is known about how Aro + neuron circuitry is influenced by social experience. Using a combination of chemogenetics, activity mapping and retrograde viral tracing, we show that social experience modulates Aro + neurons during sexual behavior and territorial aggression. Chemogenetic inhibition of BNST Aro + neurons in socially experienced male mice revealed that these neurons are required for territorial aggression, but not for sexual behavior. Behavior testing in experienced animals showed a specific increase in activation in the vomeronasal organ (VNO) and the Medial Amygdala (MeA) after sexual behavior but not territorial aggression, assessed by Egr1 expression. We also observed an increase of Egr1 cells in the medial Preoptic Area (mPOA), a brain region implicated in the display of sexual behavior. Combined retrograde viral tracing and Egr1 immunodetection showed that a subset of the activated cells in the MeA are Aro + neurons projecting to the mPOA. These results highlight that social experience induces a differential neural activity in the circuitry controlling sexual behavior and aggression, which include MeA Aro + neurons projecting to the mPOA.
位于终纹床核（BNST）的芳香化酶（Aro+）神经元对于未成熟雄性小鼠性行为和领地攻击性的表现至关重要。内侧杏仁核的后背部（MeApd）也含有领地攻击性所需的Aro+神经元，但这些神经元对于未成熟动物性行为的表现似乎并非必需。然而，关于Aro+神经元回路如何受到社会经验的影响却知之甚少。通过结合化学遗传学、活动图谱和逆行病毒追踪技术，我们发现社会经验在性行为和领地攻击过程中会调节Aro+神经元。对有社会经验的雄性小鼠的BNST Aro+神经元进行化学遗传学抑制后发现，这些神经元是领地攻击所必需的，但对性行为并非如此。对有经验的动物进行行为测试表明，通过Egr1表达评估，性行为后犁鼻器（VNO）和内侧杏仁核（MeA）的激活有特异性增加，但领地攻击后没有。我们还观察到内侧视前区（mPOA）中Egr1细胞增加，该脑区与性行为的表现有关。结合逆行病毒追踪和Egr1免疫检测表明，MeA中一部分被激活的细胞是投射到mPOA的Aro+神经元。这些结果突出表明，社会经验会在控制性行为和攻击行为的回路中诱导差异性神经活动，其中包括投射到mPOA的MeA Aro+神经元。
