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Assessment of Sexual Behavior of Male Mice
Published on: March 5, 2020
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State-dependent responses to sex pheromones in mouse
Lisa Stowers1, Stephen D Liberles2
1Department of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 02037, United States.
Current Opinion in Neurobiology
|April 20, 2016
Summary
Mouse pheromone responses vary based on individual factors like sex and experience. This review explores how neural circuit modulation explains these conditional behaviors, revealing flexible neural pathways.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Biology
- Sensory Systems
Background:
- Sensory cues can elicit diverse behaviors.
- Individual differences (sex, state, experience, genotype, environment) influence responses.
- Pheromones are key mouse behavior inducers, but responses are variable.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the origins of variability in responses to reproductive pheromones.
- To understand how neural circuits modulate pheromone processing.
- To explain how conditional pheromone responses alter behavior.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent advances in pheromone processing research.
- Analysis of modulation at peripheral sensory neurons.
- Examination of central neuron processing in the vomeronasal amygdala.
Main Results:
- Response variability arises from modulation across pheromone-processing circuitry.
- Modulation occurs from peripheral sensory neurons to central amygdala neurons.
- Conditional pheromone responses are shaped by neural circuit flexibility.
Conclusions:
- Understanding variability in pheromone responses is crucial.
- Neural circuit modulation explains conditional behaviors.
- Flexible neural circuits underlie adaptive behavioral responses to pheromones.
