Synchronized LFP rhythmicity in the social brain reflects the context of social encounters

Mammalian social behavior is highly context-sensitive. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms that modulate social behavior according to its context. Recent studies have revealed a network of mostly limbic brain regions, here termed the "social brain", which regulates social behavior. We hypothesized that coherent theta and gamma rhythms reflect the organization of the social brain regions into functional networks in a context-dependent manner. To test this concept, we simultaneously recorded extracellular activity from multiple social brain regions in mice performing three social discrimination tasks. Local field potential (LFP) rhythmicity across all tasks was dominated by a general internal state. However, during stimulus investigation LFP rhythmicity was sensitive to stimulus characteristics. Specifically, the pattern of LFP coherence between the various regions reflected mainly the social context. Moreover, we found the ventral dentate gyrus to play a pivotal role in coordinating the context-specific rhythmic activity in the network.