Ansorge Lab

Research focus

NIH R01 · 2024

Developmental Origins of Aggressive and Impulsive Behavior

Project Summary. Septal-hypothalamic neuronal activity centrally mediates aggressive behavior, while the monoamine neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin play strong and mostly opposing modulatory roles. However, related circuit mechanisms and ontogeny are largely unknown. Making progress towards circuit mechanism, we found in mice that dopamine input from the ventral tegmental area to the lateral septum is sufficient for promoting aggression and necessary for establishing baseline aggression. Within the lateral septum, dopamine acts on D2 receptors to inhibit GABA neurons that project to the hypothalamus. These findings effectively link the clinically pertinent hyper-dopamine model of…

From the public funding record at NIH RePORTER. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.