Sexually dimorphic dopaminergic circuits determine sex preference

IF 44.7 1区综合性期刊 Q1 MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES Science Pub Date : 2025-01-09 DOI:10.1126/science.adq7001

Anqi Wei, Anran Zhao, Chaowen Zheng, Nan Dong, Xu Cheng, Xueting Duan, Shuaijie Zhong, Xiaoying Liu, Jie Jian, Yuhao Qin, Yuxin Yang, Yuhao Gu, Bianbian Wang, Niki Gooya, Jingxiao Huo, Jingyu Yao, Weiwei Li, Kai Huang, Haiyao Liu, Fenghan Mao, Ruolin Wang, Mingjie Shao, Botao Wang, Yichi Zhang, Yang Chen, Qian Song, Rong Huang, Qiumin Qu, Chunxiang Zhang, Xinjiang Kang, Huadong Xu, Changhe Wang

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Abstract

Sociosexual preference is critical for reproduction and survival. However, neural mechanisms encoding social decisions on sex preference remain unclear. In this study, we show that both male and female mice exhibit female preference but shift to male preference when facing survival threats; their preference is mediated by the dimorphic changes in the excitability of ventral tegmental area dopaminergic (VTA DA ) neurons. In males, VTA DA projections to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) mediate female preference, and those to the medial preoptic area mediate male preference. In females, firing-pattern (phasic-like versus tonic-like) alteration of the VTA DA -NAc projection determines sociosexual preferences. These findings define VTA DA neurons as a key node for social decision-making and reveal the sexually dimorphic DA circuit mechanisms underlying sociosexual preference.

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来源期刊

Science 综合性期刊-综合性期刊

CiteScore

61.10

自引率

0.90%

发文量

审稿时长

2.1 months

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