title: Hypothalamic control of male aggression-seeking behavior.
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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Annegret L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Falkner
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Neuroscience Program, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Logan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grosenick
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering and CNC Program, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Davidson
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Neuroscience Program, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Deisseroth
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA.|Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Dayu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D062308:Optogenetics / Q000379:methods*; D012919:Social Behavior