Medial preoptic circuits governing instinctive social behaviors
Tamás Láng,
Diána Dimén,
Szilvia Oláh,
Gina Puska,
Arpád Dobolyi
Affiliations
Tamás Láng
Laboratory of Neuromorphology, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Diána Dimén
Laboratory of Neuromorphology, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary; Addiction and Neuroplasticity Laboratory, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
Szilvia Oláh
Laboratory of Molecular and Systems Neurobiology, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
Gina Puska
Laboratory of Molecular and Systems Neurobiology, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
Arpád Dobolyi
Laboratory of Neuromorphology, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary; Laboratory of Molecular and Systems Neurobiology, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; Corresponding author
Summary: The medial preoptic area (MPOA) has long been implicated in maternal and male sexual behavior. Modern neuroscience methods have begun to reveal the cellular networks responsible, while also implicating the MPOA in other social behaviors, affiliative social touch, and aggression. The social interactions rely on input from conspecifics whose most important modalities in rodents are olfaction and somatosensation. These inputs bypass the cerebral cortex to reach the MPOA to influence the social function. Hormonal inputs also directly act on MPOA neurons. In turn, the MPOA controls social responses via various projections for reward and motor output. The MPOA thus emerges as one of the major brain centers for instinctive social behavior. While key elements of MPOA circuits have been identified, a synthesis of these new data is now provided for further studies to reveal the mechanisms by which the area controls social interactions.
