Encoding of female mating dynamics by a hypothalamic line attractor.

ABSTRACT: Females exhibit complex, dynamic behaviours during mating with variable sexual receptivity depending on hormonal status^1-4. However, how their brains encode the dynamics of mating and receptivity remains largely unknown. The ventromedial hypothalamus, ventrolateral subdivision contains oestrogen receptor type 1-positive neurons that control mating receptivity in female mice^5,6. Here, unsupervised dynamical system analysis of calcium imaging data from these neurons during mating uncovered a dimension with slow ramping activity, generating a line attractor in neural state space. Neural perturbations in behaving females demonstrated relaxation of population activity back into the attractor. During mating, population activity integrated male cues to ramp up along this att

SUBMITTER: Liu M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11499253 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature