ERC Consolidator Grant · 2017
Hypothalamic circuits for the selection of defensive and mating behavior in females
Social interactions can take different courses depending on the internal state of the participants. For instance, a sexually receptive female mouse will allow a male’s attempt to mount her, but a non-receptive female will fight or flee the same male. Here, we propose to determine how neuronal circuits in the female mouse brain support flexible, state-dependent interactions with male conspecifics. It is known that female receptivity depends on the ventrolateral region of the ventromedial hypothalamus. Within this region there is a population of neurons that expresses receptors for the sex hormone progesterone (PR+ neurons), whose levels cycle with reproductive state. In pilot experiments, we…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.