Nicole Rigney, Elba Campos-Lira, Matthew K Kirchner, Wei Wei, Selma Belkasim, Rachael Beaumont, Sumeet Singh, Sara Guedez Suarez, Delenn Hartswick, Javier E Stern, Geert J de Vries, Aras Petrulis
One of the largest sex differences in brain neurochemistry is the expression of the neuropeptide arginine vasopressin (AVP) within the vertebrate brain, with males having more AVP cells in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) than females. Despite the long-standing implication of AVP in social and anxiety-like behaviors, the circuitry underlying AVP's control of these behaviors is still not well defined. Using optogenetic approaches, we show that inhibiting AVP BNST cells reduces social investigation in males, but not in females, whereas stimulating these cells increases social investigation in both sexes, but more so in males...
May 14, 2024: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America