Antagonistic control of social versus repetitive self-grooming behaviors by separable amygdala neuronal subsets.

ABSTRACT: Animals display a range of innate social behaviors that play essential roles in survival and reproduction. While the medial amygdala (MeA) has been implicated in prototypic social behaviors such as aggression, the circuit-level mechanisms controlling such behaviors are not well understood. Using cell-type-specific functional manipulations, we find that distinct neuronal populations in the MeA control different social and asocial behaviors. A GABAergic subpopulation promotes aggression and two other social behaviors, while neighboring glutamatergic neurons promote repetitive self-grooming, an asocial behavior. Moreover, this glutamatergic subpopulation inhibits social interactions independently of its effect to promote self-grooming, while the GABAergic subpopulation inhibits self-grooming,

SUBMITTER: Hong W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4167378 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature