genetic manipulation in rodents

The limbic system regulates behaviors essential for vertebrate survival, including innate behaviors such as mating, aggression, and defense.

Activation of circuits regulating innate behaviors begins with peripheral sensory stimulation, primarily via the olfactory system in rodents, and is processed by structures including the amygdala and hypothalamus.

Understanding developmental processes of innate circuit formation may inform behavioral alterations observed in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders, which are characterized by limbic system dysfunction.

Although the basic neuroanatomy of innate limbic connections is well-established, much remains unknown about information processing within innate circuits and the genetic hierarchies regulating their development and function.

Channel rhodopsin-based circuit manipulation and genetic manipulation in rodents have begun to answer questions about innate circuit processing and genetic control of development and function.

The article reviews how limbic circuits regulate sexually dimorphic behaviors and how these circuits are established and shaped during pre- and post-natal development.