ArticleNature neuroscience2021
Medial preoptic area antagonistically mediates stress-induced anxiety and parental behavior.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 91 papers.
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Who cites it
91 citing papers in PubMed, 152 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neural circuits for mammalian parental behaviour.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- WTR: A Toolkit for Functional Anterograde Transsynaptic Circuit Mapping.Research square · 2026Article
- A prefrontal peptidergic circuit for psychogenic itch.Science advances · 2026Article
- Unveiling the enigma of anxiety disorders and depression: from pathogenesis to treatment.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Review
- Sustained hyperactivity of parasubthalamic nucleus by PACAP signaling mediates stress-induced anxiety.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- High ambient temperature activates a neural circuit for gut glucose uptake in male mice.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Article
- Norepinephrine neurons in the locus coeruleus and the nucleus of the solitary tract drive different stress-related behavioral outputs in mice.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Paternal behavior is controlled by preoptic Trpc5 neurons.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The neural control of infanticide and parental behaviors in male mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Ventral pallidum GABA neuron inhibition augments context-appropriate defensive responses to learned threat cues.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- A holistic review of fatherhood in humans and non-human animals: mechanisms of fatherhood, effects on fathers themselves, and interactions of fathers with others.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Review
- The dual links of health literacy in driving exercise adherence: the interactive effects of emotional management ability and life satisfaction.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- The Key Role of Somatostatin Neurons in the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus in Anxiety-Depression Comorbidity Following Sleep Deprivation.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Article
- Activation of hypothalamic-pontine-spinal pathway promotes locomotor initiation and functional recovery after spinal cord injury in mice.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Obesity dysregulates feeding-evoked response dynamics in hypothalamic satiety neurons.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Combined Study of Behavior and Spike Discharges Associated with Negative Emotions in Mice.Neuroscience bulletin · 2025Article
- Medial preoptic CCKAR mediates anxiety and aggression induced by chronic emotional stress in male mice.National science review · 2025Article
- Dopamine dynamics underlying maternal motivation and reward.Neuroscience research · 2025Review
- The influence of physical activity on emotional management ability in college students: a chain mediating role of psychological resilience and health literacy.BMC public health · 2025Article
31 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
Anxiety is a negative emotional state that is overly displayed in anxiety disorders and depression. Although anxiety is known to be controlled by distributed brain networks, key components for its initiation, maintenance and coordination with behavioral state remain poorly understood. Here, we report that anxiogenic stressors elicit acute and prolonged responses in glutamatergic neurons of the mouse medial preoptic area (mPOA). These neurons encode extremely negative valence and mediate the induction and expression of anxiety-like behaviors. Conversely, mPOA GABA-containing neurons encode positive valence and produce anxiolytic effects. Such opposing roles are mediated by competing local interactions and long-range projections of neurons to the periaqueductal gray. The two neuronal populations antagonistically regulate anxiety-like and parental behaviors: anxiety is reduced, while parenting is enhanced and vice versa. Thus, by evaluating negative and positive valences through distinct but interacting circuits, the mPOA coordinates emotional state and social behavior.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.