@article{ref1,
title="Hypothalamic control of male aggression-seeking behavior",
journal="Nature neuroscience",
year="2016",
author="Falkner, Annegret L. and Grosenick, Logan and Davidson, Thomas J. and Deisseroth, Karl and Lin, Dayu",
volume="19",
number="4",
pages="596-604",
abstract="In many vertebrate species, certain individuals will seek out opportunities for aggression, even in the absence of threat-provoking cues. Although several brain areas have been implicated in the generation of attack in response to social threat, little is known about the neural mechanisms that promote self-initiated or 'voluntary' aggression-seeking when no threat is present. To explore this directly, we utilized an aggression-seeking task in which male mice self-initiated aggression trials to gain brief and repeated access to a weaker male that they could attack. In males that exhibited rapid task learning, we found that the ventrolateral part of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMHvl), an area with a known role in attack, was essential for aggression-seeking. Using both single-unit electrophysiology and population optical recording, we found that VMHvl neurons became active during aggression-seeking and that their activity tracked changes in task learning and extinction. Inactivation of the VMHvl reduced aggression-seeking behavior, whereas optogenetic stimulation of the VMHvl accelerated moment-to-moment aggression-seeking and intensified future attack. These data demonstrate that the VMHvl can mediate both acute attack and flexible seeking actions that precede attack.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1097-6256",
doi="10.1038/nn.4264",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.4264"
}