ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021
Basal forebrain mediates prosocial behavior via disinhibition of midbrain dopamine neurons.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Central neurons encode interleukin-1β signals and mediate stress-induced inflammation.The Journal of experimental medicine · 2026Article
- Sex Differences on Social and Anxiety-Related Responses in Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor Knockout Mice.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Article
- The impact of a group music game intervention on cooperative behavior in 5- to 6-year-old children.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Tactile stimulation reverses painful stimuli outcomes via PVN-VTA oxytocin circuitry and dopaminergic regulation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Social Reward Learning Deficits and Concordant Brain Alterations in Rats Overexpressing Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1).The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- The Somatostatin Pathway Projected from the Basal Forebrain to the Lateral Habenula Promotes Isoflurane Anesthesia Recovery.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Threat-Driven Social Plasticity: Switch from Innate Attraction to Conditioned Preference.Neuroscience bulletin · 2025Article
- Brain circuits that regulate social behavior.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Review
- Investigating the effect of Arvcf reveals an essential role on regulating the mesolimbic dopamine signaling-mediated nicotine reward.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Spatiotemporal Mapping of the Oxytocin Receptor at Single-Cell Resolution in the Postnatally Developing Mouse Brain.Neuroscience bulletin · 2025Article
- Vitamin A attenuates PFOS-induced neurotoxicity and alters early proximity patterns to conspecifics in zebrafish larvae.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- The Impact of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy on Functional and Structural Plasticity in Rats With Spinal Cord Injury.Brain and behavior · 2024Article
- In vivo magnetogenetics for cell-type-specific targeting and modulation of brain circuits.Nature nanotechnology · 2024Article
- The basal forebrain to lateral habenula circuitry mediates social behavioral maladaptation.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Distinct cholinergic circuits underlie discrete effects of reward on attention.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2024Review
- Emotional and behavioral problems change the development of cerebellar gray matter volume, thickness, and surface area from childhood to adolescence: A longitudinal cohort study.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2023Article
- Article
- Review
- Modulation of 5-HT release by dynorphin mediates social deficits during opioid withdrawal.Neuron · 2022Article
- Neural basis of prosocial behavior.Trends in neurosciences · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sociability is fundamental for our daily life and is compromised in major neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the neuronal circuit mechanisms underlying prosocial behavior are still elusive. Here we identify a causal role of the basal forebrain (BF) in the control of prosocial behavior via inhibitory projections that disinhibit the midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA) neurons. Specifically, BF somatostatin-positive (SST) inhibitory neurons were robustly activated during social interaction. Optogenetic inhibition of these neurons in BF or their axon terminals in the VTA largely abolished social preference. Electrophysiological examinations further revealed that SST neurons predominantly targeted VTA GABA neurons rather than DA neurons. Consistently, optical inhibition of SST neuron axon terminals in the VTA decreased DA release in the nucleus accumbens during social interaction, confirming a disinhibitory action. These data reveal a previously unappreciated function of the BF in prosocial behavior through a disinhibitory circuitry connected to the brain's reward system.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.