Transformations of neural representations in a social behaviour network

Mating and aggression are innate social behaviours that are controlled by subcortical circuits in the extended amygdala and hypothalamus1–4. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNSTpr) is a node that receives input encoding sex-specific olfactory cues from the medial amygdala5,6, and which in turn projects to hypothalamic nuclei that control mating7–9 (medial preoptic area (MPOA)) and aggression9–14 (ventromedial hypothalamus, ventrolateral subdivision (VMHvl)), respectively15. Previous studies have demonstrated that male aromatase-positive BNSTpr neurons are required for mounting and attack, and may identify conspecific sex according to their overall level of activity16. However, neural representations in BNSTpr, their function and their transformations in the hypothalamus have not been characterized. Here we performed calcium imaging17,18 of male BNSTprEsr1 neurons during social behaviours. We identify distinct populations of female- versus male-tuned neurons in BNSTpr, with the former outnumbering the latter by around two to one, similar to the medial amygdala and MPOA but opposite to VMHvl, in which male-tuned neurons predominate6,9,19. Chemogenetic silencing of BNSTprEsr1 neurons while imaging MPOAEsr1 or VMHvlEsr1 neurons in behaving animals showed, unexpectedly, that the male-dominant sex-tuning bias in VMHvl was inverted to female-dominant whereas a switch from sniff- to mount-selective neurons during mating was attenuated in MPOA. Our data also indicate that BNSTprEsr1 neurons are not essential for conspecific sex identification. Rather, they control the transition from appetitive to consummatory phases of male social behaviours by shaping sex- and behaviour-specific neural representations in the hypothalamus.