IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v509y2014i7500d10.1038_nature13307.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Galanin neurons in the medial preoptic area govern parental behaviour

Author

Listed:
  • Zheng Wu

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University)

  • Anita E. Autry

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University)

  • Joseph F. Bergan

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University)

  • Mitsuko Watabe-Uchida

    (Center for Brain Science, Harvard University)

  • Catherine G. Dulac

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University)

Abstract

Mice display robust, stereotyped behaviours towards pups: virgin males typically attack pups, whereas virgin females and sexually experienced males and females display parental care. Here we show that virgin males genetically impaired in vomeronasal sensing do not attack pups and are parental. Furthermore, we uncover a subset of galanin-expressing neurons in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) that are specifically activated during male and female parenting, and a different subpopulation that is activated during mating. Genetic ablation of MPOA galanin neurons results in marked impairment of parental responses in males and females and affects male mating. Optogenetic activation of these neurons in virgin males suppresses inter-male and pup-directed aggression and induces pup grooming. Thus, MPOA galanin neurons emerge as an essential regulatory node of male and female parenting behaviour and other social responses. These results provide an entry point to a circuit-level dissection of parental behaviour and its modulation by social experience.

Suggested Citation

  • Zheng Wu & Anita E. Autry & Joseph F. Bergan & Mitsuko Watabe-Uchida & Catherine G. Dulac, 2014. "Galanin neurons in the medial preoptic area govern parental behaviour," Nature, Nature, vol. 509(7500), pages 325-330, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:509:y:2014:i:7500:d:10.1038_nature13307
    DOI: 10.1038/nature13307
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13307
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature13307?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elyashiv Zangen & Shira Hadar & Christopher Lawrence & Mustafa Obeid & Hala Rasras & Ella Hanzin & Ori Aslan & Eyal Zur & Nadav Schulcz & Daniel Cohen-Hatab & Yona Samama & Sarah Nir & Yi Li & Irina D, 2024. "Prefrontal cortex neurons encode ambient light intensity differentially across regions and layers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-19, December.
    2. Solomiia Korchynska & Patrick Rebernik & Marko Pende & Laura Boi & Alán Alpár & Ramon Tasan & Klaus Becker & Kira Balueva & Saiedeh Saghafi & Peer Wulff & Tamas L. Horvath & Gilberto Fisone & Hans-Ulr, 2022. "A hypothalamic dopamine locus for psychostimulant-induced hyperlocomotion in mice," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Eric R. Schuppe & Irene Ballagh & Najva Akbari & Wenxuan Fang & Jonathan T. Perelmuter & Caleb H. Radtke & Margaret A. Marchaterre & Andrew H. Bass, 2024. "Midbrain node for context-specific vocalisation in fish," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    4. Can Tao & Guang-Wei Zhang & Wen-Jian Sun & Junxiang J. Huang & Li I. Zhang & Huizhong Whit Tao, 2024. "Excitation-inhibition imbalance in medial preoptic area circuits underlies chronic stress-induced depression-like states," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:509:y:2014:i:7500:d:10.1038_nature13307. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.