Nature Communications (Jan 2018)

Medial preoptic area in mice is capable of mediating sexually dimorphic behaviors regardless of gender

  • Yi-Chao Wei,
  • Shao-Ran Wang,
  • Zhuo-Lei Jiao,
  • Wen Zhang,
  • Jun-Kai Lin,
  • Xing-Yu Li,
  • Shuai-Shuai Li,
  • Xin Zhang,
  • Xiao-Hong Xu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02648-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 15

Abstract

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The medial preoptic area (mPOA) in a mammalian brain is sexually dimorphic, and yet its exact function in mediating gender-specific behavior remains unclear. Here, Xu and colleagues show that optogenetic manipulation of the mPOA in male mice induce female-stereotyped behaviors and vice versa.