# Microcircuits underlying murine parental behavior

> **NIH NIH R01** · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $352,522

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Many severe mental disorders with considerable disease burden such Autism Spectrum Disorders,
Schizophrenia, and Major Depressive Disorder are characterized by profound social impairments. At present,
there is little understanding of the origin of these social deficits, and efficient diagnosis and therapeutic options
are lacking. Advanced molecular and genetic techniques make the discovery of specific neural circuits involved
in social behavior possible, facilitating the development of diagnostics and novel therapeutic approaches specific
to disorders with social deficits. We have taken advantage of newly developed molecular, genetic and systems-
levels tools to uncover how specific neural populations and circuits involved in parental care, a social behavior
essential for the survival and well-being of the offspring are regulated according to the animal sex and
physiological status. Male and female mice show either affiliative or agonistic behavior toward infants depending
on prior social experience. In recent work, we uncovered distinct subpopulations of hypothalamic neurons that
are involved in the positive and negative regulation of male and female parenting behavior. The identification of
these cell types with high granularity provides us with unique entry point to further dissect how changes in the
molecular, biophysical and activity dynamics of distinct neuronal populations regulates parental care. We
propose here to exploit the precise cell type identification of neuronal populations involved in the control of
opposing infant-mediated behaviors and use high resolution molecular (Aim 1), neurophysiological (Aim 2) and
systems-level (Aim 3) approaches to dissect the entire circuitry associated with infant-directed social interactions
and to explore how these circuits are modulated by the animal’s sex and physiological state.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10891406
- **Project number:** 5R01HD082131-10
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Catherine Dulac
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $352,522
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2015-08-14 → 2025-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10891406

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10891406, Microcircuits underlying murine parental behavior (5R01HD082131-10). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10891406. Licensed CC0.

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