Transformations of neural representations in a social behaviour network

Mating and aggression are innate social behaviours that are controlled by subcortical circuits in the extended amygdala and hypothalamus 1 – 4 . The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNSTpr) is a node that receives input encoding sex-specific olfactory cues from the medial amygdala 5 , 6 , and which in turn projects to hypothalamic nuclei that control mating 7 – 9 (medial preoptic area (MPOA)) and aggression 9 – 14 (ventromedial hypothalamus, ventrolateral subdivision (VMHvl)), respectively 15 . Previous studies have demonstrated that male aromatase-positive BNSTpr neurons are required for mounting and attack, and may identify conspecific sex according to their overall level of activity 16 . However, neural representations in BNSTpr, their function and their transformations in the hypothalamus have not been characterized. Here we performed calcium imaging 17 , 18 of male BNSTpr Esr1 neurons during social behaviours. We identify distinct populations of female- versus male-tuned neurons in BNSTpr, with the former outnumbering the latter by around two to one, similar to the medial amygdala and MPOA but opposite to VMHvl, in which male-tuned neurons predominate 6 , 9 , 19 . Chemogenetic silencing of BNSTpr Esr1 neurons while imaging MPOA Esr1 or VMHvl Esr1 neurons in behaving animals showed, unexpectedly, that the male-dominant sex-tuning bias in VMHvl was inverted to female-dominant whereas a switch from sniff- to mount-selective neurons during mating was attenuated in MPOA. Our data also indicate that BNSTpr Esr1 neurons are not essential for conspecific sex identification. Rather, they control the transition from appetitive to consummatory phases of male social behaviours by shaping sex- and behaviour-specific neural representations in the hypothalamus. BNSTpr Esr1 activity is required to gate the transition from appetitive to consummatory male social behaviours towards both sexes, by controlling sex- and behaviour-specific representations in VMHvl and MPOA, respectively.