SCIENCE@home

Recent advances in understanding the role of the hypothalamic circuit during aggression

Annegret L. Falkner,Dayu Lin

Published 2014 in Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience

ABSTRACT

The hypothalamus was first implicated in the classic “fight or flight” response nearly a century ago, and since then, many important strides have been made in understanding both the circuitry and the neural dynamics underlying the generation of these behaviors. In this review, we will focus on the role of the hypothalamus in aggression, paying particular attention to recent advances in the field that have allowed for functional identification of relevant hypothalamic subnuclei. Recent progress in this field has been aided by the development of new techniques for functional manipulation including optogenetics and pharmacogenetics, as well as advances in technology used for chronic in vivo recordings during complex social behaviors. We will examine the role of the hypothalamus through the complimentary lenses of (1) loss of function studies, including pharmacology and pharmacogenetics; (2) gain of function studies, including specific comparisons between results from classic electrical stimulation studies and more recent work using optogenetics; and (3) neural activity, including both immediate early gene and awake-behaving recordings. Lastly, we will outline current approaches to identifying the precise role of the hypothalamus in promoting aggressive motivation and aggressive action.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-100 of 120 references · Page 1 of 2

12
Next

CITED BY

Showing 1-56 of 56 citing papers · Page 1 of 1