the cMPOA-VMHvl circuit gates aggression in male mice
activating the terminals of MPOA that synapse onto VMHvl with optogenetics stops current attacks, reduces attack reinitiation, reduces attack duration, but increases investigation. inhibiting the same circuit, increases attack duration, and decreases attack latency but also towards females as well. additionally, inhibition also increases both offensive and defensive attacks towards more aggressive mice. these data point to the idea that fear inhibits the aggression pathway through the results that male cMPOA activity represents social fear and the cMPOA inhibits VMHvl.
optogenetic tool (either ChR2 or GtACR2) expressed in the terminals of MPOA and optic fibers inserted to shine on the terminals that connect to the VMHvl
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