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Review
. 2022 Sep 29:16:978344.
doi: 10.3389/fncir.2022.978344. eCollection 2022.

The neural circuits of monogamous behavior

Affiliations
Review

The neural circuits of monogamous behavior

María Fernanda López-Gutiérrez et al. Front Neural Circuits. .

Abstract

The interest in studying the neural circuits related to mating behavior and mate choice in monogamous species lies in the parallels found between human social structure and sexual behavior and that of other mammals that exhibit social monogamy, potentially expanding our understanding of human neurobiology and its underlying mechanisms. Extensive research has suggested that social monogamy, as opposed to non-monogamy in mammals, is a consequence of the neural encoding of sociosensory information from the sexual partner with an increased reward value. Thus, the reinforced value of the mate outweighs the reward value of mating with any other potential sexual partners. This mechanism reinforces the social relationship of a breeding pair, commonly defined as a pair bond. In addition to accentuated prosocial behaviors toward the partner, other characteristic behaviors may appear, such as territorial and partner guarding, selective aggression toward unfamiliar conspecifics, and biparental care. Concomitantly, social buffering and distress upon partner separation are also observed. The following work intends to overview and compare known neural and functional circuits that are related to mating and sexual behavior in monogamous mammals. We will particularly discuss reports on Cricetid rodents of the Microtus and Peromyscus genus, and New World primates (NWP), such as the Callicebinae subfamily of the titi monkey and the marmoset (Callithrix spp.). In addition, we will mention the main factors that modulate the neural circuits related to social monogamy and how that modulation may reflect phenotypic differences, ultimately creating the widely observed diversity in social behavior.

Keywords: c-fos; functional connectivity; multimodal communication; neural plasticity; sexual signals; social monogamy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Proposed neural circuits of monogamous behavior in the prairie vole and the titi monkey. Illustrations show sagittal views of the prairie vole and titi monkey brain that propose neural circuit models for social affiliation, pair bond formation, and pair bond maintenance. The behaviors imply the recruitment of reward-modulating areas with social-salience processing regions, producing an association between a social cue or stimuli with a reward encoding and response. The activation of particular brain areas may be context-dependent, hence the dashed connecting lines and dashed brain region outlines that show hypothesized interactions that are likely involved, but have yet to be demonstrated for these circuits. OT, oxytocin; AVP, arginine-vasopressin; DA, dopamine; ERα, estrogen receptor alpha; OTR, oxytocin receptor; AVPR, arginine vasopressin receptor; ACC, anterior cingulate cortex; AOB, accessory olfactory bulb; AON, anterior olfactory nucleus; BLA, basolateral amygdala; BNST, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. CeA, central amygdala. DG, dentate gyrus. HC, hippocampus. dHC, dorsal hippocampus. MeA, medial amygdala. MOB, main olfactory bulb. LGN, lateral geniculate nucleus. LS, lateral septum. mPFC, medial prefrontal cortex. mPOA, medial preoptic area. NAcc, nucleus accumbens. Pv, pulvinar. PVN, paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. RSC, retrosplenial cortex. SC, superior colliculus. SON, supraoptic nucleus. VP, ventral pallidum. vHC, ventral hippocampus. VTA, ventral tegmental area. V1, primary visual cortex.

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