Ever wonder what's happening in neural circuits during interactions like this? Preprint from @DulacLab, with @UtopianCynic and co-first @Kapoor_Vic, along with @KeeperofBrains et al. Molecular and circuit architecture of social hierarchy in mice! https://bit.ly/2CBORz1  1/6

We hypothesized that the establishment of hierarchy among unfamiliar mice should unfold with experience and should be linked to changes in neuronal activity, gene expression, and plasticity in specific circuits, leading to emergence of social status. We make four key findings 2/6

1) We develop a paradigm to quantify the emergence of social hierarchy in groups of genetically similar mice and identify several behavioral and physiological correlates social rank 3/6

2) We identify connected brain areas whose activity is dependent on rank. The mediodorsal thalamus (MDT) and PV+ interneurons of caudal anterior cingulate (cACC) play an important role. Plasticity in excitatory and inhibitory inputs to MDT is also associated with rank 4/6

3) Biophysical and transcriptional changes in MDT cells are associated with rank! MDT neurons are more excitable in high-rank than low-rank and controls. Single nucleus RNAseq helped us link this change to Trpm3, a voltage gated ion channel that regulates neural excitability 5/6

4) In light of previous literature, we propose a working model for how changes in MDT activity during hierarchy establishment instructs the cACC to control the expression of fear through a feedforward inhibition mechanism 6/6