Different roles of D1/D2 medium spiny neurons in the nucleus accumbens in pair bond formation of male mandarin voles
The mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system has been implicated in pair bond formation. However, the involvements of DA release, real-time activities, and electrophysiological activities of D1/D2 medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell in pair bonding remain unclear. This work verified that male mandarin voles after pair bonding released higher levels of DA in the NAc shell and displayed higher levels of D1 MSNs activity and lower levels of D2 MSNs activity upon sniffing their partners compared to upon sniffing an unknown female. Moreover, pair bonding induced differential alterations in both synaptic plasticity and neuronal intrinsic excitability in both D1 MSNs and D2 MSNs. In addition, chemogenetic inhibition of ventral pallidum (VP) -projecting D2 MSNs in the NAc shell enhanced pair bond formation, while chemogenetic activation of VP-projecting D2 MSNs in the NAc shell inhibited pair bond formation. These findings suggest that different neuronal activity of NAc shell D1 MSNs / D2 MSNs regulated by increasing DA release after pair bonding may be a neurobiological mechanism underlying pair bond formation.
Authors
- Yishan Qu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1849-6361)
- Zijian Lv (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5176-6397)
- Hui Qiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2476-4342)
- Limin Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1673-1831)
- Hao Feng
- Fadao Tai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6804-4179)
- Larry J. Young (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2044-2239)
- Lu Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3097-1954)
- Yitong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1992-7861)
- Yuqian Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0136-0086)
- Li Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6769-7947)
- Xing Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4130-5359)
- Caihong Huang
- Ting Lian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4281-1851)
- Rui Jia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3584-9787)
- Zhixiong He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8477-2338)
- Jing Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1139-4127)
- Lizi Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2356-9737)
- Wenjuan Hou
Institutions
- University of Tsukuba (JP)
- Emory University (US)
- Xi'an Medical University (CN)
- Shaanxi Normal University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- eLife
- Published
- 2025-06-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.100292.3
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.44
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province
- Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Department
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
- Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi Province