Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Advance Access originally published online on November 6, 2006
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2006 1(3):260-270; doi:10.1093/scan/nsl032
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Mechanisms underlying sexual and affiliative behaviors of mice: relation to generalized CNS arousal
1Laboratory of Neurobiology and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, 10021, USA, 2Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada, N1G 2W1, and 3Department of Psychology University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada, N6A 5C2
The field of social neuroscience has grown dramatically in recent years and certain social responses have become amenable to mechanistic investigations. Toward that end, there has been remarkable progress in determining mechanisms for a simple sexual behavior, lordosis behavior. This work has proven that specific hormone-dependent biochemical reactions in specific parts of the mammalian brain regulate a biologically important behavior. On one hand, this sex behavior depends on underlying mechanisms of CNS arousal. On the other hand, it serves as a prototypical social behavior. The same sex hormones and the genes that encode their receptors as are involved in lordosis, also affect social recognition. Here we review evidence for a micronet of genes promoting social recognition in mice and discuss their biological roles.
Keywords: CNS arousal; affiliative behavior; oxytocin; lordosis; social recognition
Correspondence should be addressed to Donald W. Pfaff 1230 York Avenue Box 275 New York, NY 10021 E-mail: pfaff{at}rockefeller.edu.