Circuit mechanisms underlying social motivation

Camilla Bellone
Neurocentre Université de Genève
Chef d’équipe Synaptic brain dysfunctions

Résumé : The decision to approach or avoid a conspecific is fundamental for survival. Affiliative (prosocial) interactions favor approach behaviors, whileantagonistic (aggressive) contactstrigger avoidance. Here we ask how the brain encodes the valence of social interaction. We focused on the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a brain region implicated in social reward processing. We observed that social interactions activateD1-expressing medium spiny neurons (D1-MSNs)regardless of their valence. However, afferentD1-expressingneurons of the anterior insular cortex (AIC) exhibited distinct activity patterns coding for prosocial and aggressive social interaction, respectively. As a result, distinct forms of synaptic plasticity were elicited atthe AIC to NAc synapses. Thus, the valence ofsocial interaction induces distinct neural activity in the AIC, which teaches the animal to approach and avoid conspecifics in the future.

Invitée par Thomas Marissal
Mardi 28 mars 2023 à 11h, en salle de conférence