A neural circuit for male sexual behavior and reward
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Male sexual behavior is innate and rewarding. While execution of this behavior is central to an animal's reproductive success, a molecularly-specified neural circuit governing male mat-ing and reward remains to be identified. In this thesis document, I report the discovery and characterization of a neural circuit for male sexual behavior emanating from chemosensory pathways to BNSTprTac1 neurons, which innervate POATacr1 neurons that project to centers that regulate motor output and reward. We show that this pathway is necessary and suffi-cient for mating, and Substance P released from the BNSTTac1 neurons transforms a sex recognition signal to a mating initiation signal in POATacr1 neurons. Experimental activation of POATacr1 neurons triggers mating regardless of a male's sexual satiety state, and animals perform arbitrary behaviors in order to receive optogenetic stimulation of POATacr1 neurons. Furthermore, optogenetic activation of POATacr1 neurons triggers robust release of dopamine in the core of the nucleus accumbens, indicating that the male neural circuit that we have identified has powerful access to the mesolimbic reward system.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2023; ©2023 |
| Publication date | 2023; 2024 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Davis, Chung-ha Oh |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Shah, Nirao |
| Thesis advisor | Shah, Nirao |
| Thesis advisor | Clandinin, Thomas |
| Thesis advisor | Ding, Jun |
| Thesis advisor | Kaltschmidt, Julia |
| Degree committee member | Clandinin, Thomas |
| Degree committee member | Ding, Jun |
| Degree committee member | Kaltschmidt, Julia |
| Associated with | Stanford University, School of Medicine |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Neurosciences |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Chung-ha Oh Davis. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Neurosciences. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2024. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/bz717pw1166 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2023 by Chung-ha Oh Davis
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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