@article{ref1,
title="Functional circuit architecture underlying parental behaviour",
journal="Nature",
year="2018",
author="Kohl, Johannes and Babayan, Benedicte M. and Rubinstein, Nimrod D. and Autry, Anita E. and Marin-Rodriguez, Brenda and Kapoor, Vikrant and Miyamishi, Kazunari and Zweifel, Larry S. and Luo, Liqun and Uchida, Naoshige and Dulac, Catherine",
volume="556",
number="7701",
pages="326-331",
abstract="Parenting is essential for the survival and wellbeing of mammalian offspring. However, we lack a circuit-level understanding of how distinct components of this behaviour are coordinated. Here we investigate how galanin-expressing neurons in the medial preoptic area (MPOA<sup>Gal</sup>) of the hypothalamus coordinate motor, motivational, hormonal and social aspects of parenting in mice. These neurons integrate inputs from a large number of brain areas and the activation of these inputs depends on the animal's sex and reproductive state. Subsets of MPOA<sup>Gal</sup> neurons form discrete pools that are defined by their projection sites. While the MPOA<sup>Gal</sup> population is active during all episodes of parental behaviour, individual pools are tuned to characteristic aspects of parenting. Optogenetic manipulation of MPOA<sup>Gal</sup> projections mirrors this specificity, affecting discrete parenting components. This functional organization, reminiscent of the control of motor sequences by pools of spinal cord neurons, provides a new model for how discrete elements of a social behaviour are generated at the circuit level.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0028-0836",
doi="10.1038/s41586-018-0027-0",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0027-0"
}