SoSexOT - Deciphering Oxytocin Circuitries Orchestrating Socio-Sexual Behavior

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Valery Grinevich
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 316694078

• Final Report Year: 2020

Final Report Abstract

Our ongoing anatomical study implementing retrograde rabies-based tracing, which revealed that parvocellular OT neurons receive at least 10-fold more inputs (preferentially from thalamic and brainstem regions) than magnocellular OT neurons. This together with functional data allows us to hypothesize that parvocellular oxytocin cells preferentially receive an input - via brainstem and thalamus - from sensory neurons of the spinal cord, and that they can, in turn, activate magnocellular oxytocin cells which modulate social behaviors by their projections to socially-relevant brain regions.

Publications

• (2019): A fear memory engram and its plasticity in the hypothalamic oxytocin system. Neuron, 103, 133-146
  Hasan, Mazahir T.; Althammer, Ferdinand; Silva da Gouveia, Miriam; Goyon, Stephanie; Eliava, Marina; Lefevre, Arthur; Kerspern, Damien; Schimmer, Jonas; Raftogianni, Androniki; Wahis, Jerome; Knobloch-Bollmann, H. Sophie; Tang, Yan; Liu, Xinying; Jain, Apar; Chavant, Virginie; Goumon, Yannick; Weislogel, Jan-Marek; Hurlemann, René; Herpertz, Sabine C.; ... & Grinevich, Valery
  
• (2019): Chemogenetic activation of oxytocin neurons: Temporal dynamics, hormonal release, and behavioral consequences. Psychoneuroendocrinology 106, 77-84
  Grund, Thomas; Tang, Yan; Benusiglio, Diego; Althammer, Ferdinand; Probst, Sophia; Oppenländer, Lena; Neumann, Inga D. & Grinevich, Valery
  
• Social touch promotes inter-female communication via activation of parvocellular oxytocin neurons. Nature Neurosci. (2020)
  Tang, Yan; Benusiglio, Diego; Lefevre, Arthur; Hilfiger, Louis; Althammer, Ferdinand; Bludau, Anna; Hagiwara, Daisuke; Baudon, Angel; Darbon, Pascal; Schimmer, Jonas; Kirchner, Matthew K.; Roy, Ranjan K.; Wang, Shiyi; Eliava, Marina; Wagner, Shlomo; Oberhuber, Martina; Conzelmann, Karl K.; Schwarz, Martin; Stern, Javier E.; ... & Grinevich, Valery