Parental behaviors secure the well-being of newborns and concomitantly limit negative affective states in adults, which emerge when coping with neonatal distress becomes challenging. Whether negative-affect-related neuronal circuits orchestrate parental actions is unknown. Here…
Lecca S et al. | Neuron | February 1, 2023Transient sexual experiences can have long-lasting effects on behavioral…
ZHOU X et al. | Science | February 9, 2023
Pleasurable touch is paramount during social behavior, including sexual…
Elias LJ et al. | Cell | February 2, 2023
While there is emerging evidence of sex differences in decision-making behavior…
Cox J et al. | Nature Neuroscience | February 16, 2023
The hypothalamus regulates innate social behaviors, including mating and…
Nair A et al. | Cell | January 11, 2023
Sound induces analgesia through corticothalamic circuits
Sound—including music and noise—can relieve pain in humans, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain unknown. We discovered that analgesic effects of sound depended…
Wenjie Zhou et al. | Science | July 7, 2022
Pattern decorrelation in the mouse medial prefrontal cortex enables social preference and requires MeCP2
Sociability is crucial for survival, whereas social avoidance is a feature of disorders such as Rett syndrome, which is caused by loss-of-function mutations in MECP2. To…
Xu P et al. | Nature Communications | July 6, 2022
Simultaneous recording of breathing and neural activity in awake behaving mice
This protocol provides a pipeline for simultaneous recording of breathing and neural activities in awake, behaving mice. Breathing is recorded with thermistor probes…
Liu S et al. | STAR Protocols | June 17, 2022
Lateral NAc Shell D1 and D2 Neuronal Ensembles Concurrently Predict Licking Behavior and Categorize Sucrose Concentrations in a Context-dependent Manner
The palatability and concentration of sweet foods promote hedonic feeding beyond homeostatic need. Understanding how neurons respond to sweet taste is thus of great…
Coss A et al. | Neuroscience | June 15, 2022Single-cell activity and network properties of dorsal raphe nucleus serotonin neurons during emotionally salient behaviors
The serotonin system modulates a wide variety of emotional behaviors and states, including reward processing, anxiety, and social interaction. To reveal the underlying…
Paquelet GE et al. | Neuron | June 13, 2022
Neural circuit pathology driven by Shank3 mutation disrupts social behaviors
Dysfunctional sociability is a core symptom in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that may arise from neural-network dysconnectivity between multiple brain regions. However…
Kim S et al. | Cell Reports | June 7, 2022