A Substantia Innominata-midbrain Circuit Controls a General Aggressive Response

Abstract

While aggressive behaviors are universal and essential for survival, uncontrollable and abnormal aggressive behaviors in animals or humans may have severe adverse consequences or social costs. Neural circuits regulating specific forms of aggression under defined conditions have been described, but how brain circuits govern a general aggressive response remains unknown. Here, we found that posterior substantia innominata (pSI) neurons responded to several aggression-provoking cues with the graded activity of differential dynamics, predicting the aggressive state and the topography of aggression in mice. Activation of pSI neurons projecting to the periaqueductal gray (PAG) increased aggressive arousal and robustly initiated/promoted all the types of aggressive behavior examined in an activity level-dependent manner. Inactivation of the pSI circuit largely blocked diverse aggressive behaviors but not mating. By encoding a general aggressive response, the pSI-PAG circuit universally drives multiple aggressive behaviors and may provide a potential target for alleviating human pathological aggression. In BriefZhu et al. find that the posterior substantia innominata neurons universally drive aggressive behaviors by representing aggressive state and topography of aggression in mice. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=200 SRC="FIGDIR/small/047670v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (44K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@19d72org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@7cc4corg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1f5c3dborg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@d9743_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG HighlightsO_LIpSI neuronal dynamics reflect aggressive state and the topography of aggression C_LIO_LIThe pSI-PAG circuit promotes arousal and elicits thirteen aggressive behaviors C_LIO_LIThe pSI controls various aggressive behaviors in an activity level-dependent manner C_LIO_LIInactivation of the pSI circuit blocks diverse aggressive behaviors but not mating C_LI