Extrahypothalamic oxytocin neurons drive stress-induced social vigilance and avoidance

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2011890117
• Publication Date: 2020-10-06T00:32:34Z
• Authors: Natalia Duque-Wil...; Lisette Y. Torres; Sae Yokoyama; Vanessa A. Minie; Amy M. Tran; Stela P. Petkova; Rebecca Hao; Stephanie Ramos-M...; Roberto A. Rios; Kenneth Jackson; Francisco J. Flor...; Israel Garcia-Car...; Patricia A. Pesav...; Sergio D. Iñiguez; Valery Grinevich; Brian C. Trainor
• Keywords: Vigilance (psychology)

Oxytocin increases the salience of both positive and negative social contexts it is thought that these diverse actions on behavior are mediated in part through circuit-specific action. This hypothesis based primarily manipulations oxytocin receptor function, leaving open question whether different populations neurons mediate effects behavior. Here we inhibited synthesis a stress-sensitive population specifically within medioventral bed nucleus stria terminalis (BNSTmv). knockdown prevented stress-induced vigilance decreases approach. Viral tracing BNSTmv revealed fibers regions controlling defensive behaviors, including lateral hypothalamus, anterior anteromedial BNST (BNSTam). infusion into BNSTam stress naïve mice increased reduced These results show extrahypothalamic plays key role anxiety behaviors.