Mechanisms underlying sexual and affiliative behaviors of mice: relation to generalized CNS arousal

The field of social neuroscience has grown dramatically in recent years and certain social responses have become amenable to mechanistic investigations. Toward that end, there has been remarkable progress in determining mechanisms for a simple sexual behavior, lordosis behavior. This work has proven that specific hormone-dependent biochemical reactions in specific parts of the mammalian brain regulate a biologically important behavior. On one hand, this sex behavior depends on underlying mechanisms of CNS arousal. On the other hand, it serves as a prototypical social behavior. The same sex hormones and the genes that encode their receptors as are involved in lordosis, also affect social recognition. Here we review evidence for a micronet of genes promoting social recognition in mice and discuss their biological roles.