Mapping social behavior-induced brain activation at cellular resolution in the mouse

Yongsoo Kim, Kannan Umadevi Venkataraju, Kith Pradhan, Carolin Mende, Julian Taranda, Srinivas C. Turaga, Ignacio Arganda-Carreras, Lydia Ng, Michael J. Hawrylycz, Kathleen S. Rockland, Hyunjune Sebastian Seung, Pavel Osten

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

212 Scopus citations

Abstract

Understanding how brain activation mediates behaviors is a central goal of systems neuroscience. Here, we apply an automated method for mapping brain activation in the mouse in order to probe how sex-specific social behaviors are represented in the male brain. Our method uses the immediate-early-gene c-fos, a marker of neuronal activation, visualized by serial two-photon tomography: the c- fos-GFP+ neurons are computationally detected, their distribution is registered to a reference brain and a brain atlas, and their numbers are analyzed by statistical tests. Our results reveal distinct and shared female and male interaction-evoked patterns of male brain activation representing sex discrimination and social recognition. We also identify brain regions whose degree of activity correlates to specific features of social behaviors and estimate the total numbers and the densities of activated neurons per brain areas. Our study opens the door to automated screening of behavior-evoked brain activation in the mouse.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)292-305
Number of pages14
JournalCell Reports
Volume10
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 13 2015

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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