The ventromedial hypothalamus (VMLvl) has been shown to play a key role in aggression in male mice, but whether it plays a similar role in females remains controversial. Both aggression-inducing conditions and mating increased directly measured neural activity in oestrogen-expressing neurons in the VMLvl. In addition, VMLvl oestrogen-expressing neurons that were active during mating and aggressive behaviour were non-overlapping, suggesting that different subpopulations of these cells are involved in these two behaviours.
References
Hashikawa, K. et al. Esr1+ cells in the ventromedial hypothalamus control female aggression. Nat. Neurosci. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.4644 (2017)
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Lewis, S. Fighting females. Nat Rev Neurosci 18, 643 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.132
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.132