No. 17

Time: 3:00 PM, March 14, 2024 (Thursday)

Location: Room 1322, North Tower, Basic Research Building, Capital Medical University

Abstract: Recognizing the affective states of social counterparts and responding appropriately fosters successful social interactions. However, little is known about how the affective states are expressed, perceived, and influence social decisions. We found that male and female mice emit distinct olfactory cues after experiencing distress. These cues activate distinct neural circuits in the piriform cortex (PiC) and evoke sexually dimorphic empathic behaviors in observers. Specifically, the PiC→PrL pathway is activated in female observers, inducing a social preference for the distressed counterpart. Conversely, the PiC→MeA pathway is activated in male observers, evoking excessive self-grooming behaviors. These pathways originate from non-overlapping PiC neuron populations with distinct gene expression signatures regulated by transcription factors and sex hormones. Our study unveils how internal states of social counterparts are processed through sexually dimorphic mechanisms at the molecular, cellular, and circuit levels, and offers insights into the neural mechanisms underpinning sex differences in higher brain functions.

Selected publications:

1. Fang S, Luo Z, Wei Z, Qin Y, Zheng J, Zhang H, Jin J, Li J, Miao C, Yang S, Li Y, Liang Z, Yu XD, Zhang XM, Xiong W, Zhu H, Gan WB, Huang L, Li B. Sexually dimorphic control of affective state processing and empathic behaviors. Neuron. 2024 Mar 1:S0896-6273(24)00085-0
2. Li B, Suutari BS, Sun SD, Luo Z, Wei C, Chenouard N, Mandelberg NJ, Zhang G, Wamsley B, Tian G, Sanchez S, You S, Huang L, Neubert TA, Fishell G, Tsien RW. Neuronal Inactivity Co-opts LTP Machinery to Drive Potassium Channel Splicing and Homeostatic Spike Widening. Cell. 2020 Jun 25;181(7):1547-1565.e15
3. Li B, Tadross MR, Tsien RW. Sequential ionic and conformational signaling by calcium channels drives neuronal gene expression. Science. 2016 Feb 19;351(6275):863-7