Sex-specific processing of social cues in the medial amygdala

  • Joseph F Bergan
    Molecular and Cellular Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States
  • Yoram Ben-Shaul
    School of Medicine, Department of Medical Neurobiology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
  • Catherine Dulac
    Molecular and Cellular Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States

書誌事項

公開日
2014-06-03
権利情報
  • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
  • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
  • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
  • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
  • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
  • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
DOI
  • 10.7554/elife.02743
公開者
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd

説明

<jats:p>Animal–animal recognition within, and across species, is essential for predator avoidance and social interactions. Despite its essential role in orchestrating responses to animal cues, basic principles of information processing by the vomeronasal system are still unknown. The medial amygdala (MeA) occupies a central position in the vomeronasal pathway, upstream of hypothalamic centers dedicated to defensive and social responses. We have characterized sensory responses in the mouse MeA and uncovered emergent properties that shed new light onto the transformation of vomeronasal information into sex- and species-specific responses. In particular, we show that the MeA displays a degree of stimulus selectivity and a striking sexually dimorphic sensory representation that are not observed in the upstream relay of the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB). Furthermore, our results demonstrate that the development of sexually dimorphic circuits in the MeA requires steroid signaling near the time of puberty to organize the functional representation of sensory stimuli.</jats:p>

収録刊行物

  • eLife

    eLife 3 e02743-, 2014-06-03

    eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd

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