Lateral habenula glutamatergic neurons projecting to the dorsal raphe nucleus promote aggressive arousal in mice.

ABSTRACT: The dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) is known to control aggressive behavior in mice. Here, we found that glutamatergic projections from the lateral habenula (LHb) to the DRN were activated in male mice that experienced pre-exposure to a rival male mouse ("social instigation") resulting in heightened intermale aggression. Both chemogenetic and optogenetic suppression of the LHb-DRN projection blocked heightened aggression after social instigation in male mice. In contrast, inhibition of this pathway did not affect basal levels of aggressive behavior, suggesting that the activity of the LHb-DRN projection is not necessary for the expression of species-typical aggressive behavior, but required for the increase of aggressive behavior resulting from social instigation. Anatomical analysis showed tha

SUBMITTER: Takahashi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9304121 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature