Project description
Understanding the neural basis of territorial aggression
Territorial defence is an evolutionary instinct essential for accessing resources and conflicts can arise from unstable territories caused by resource changes or high population density. Research suggests that a conserved brain structure in the medial hypothalamus plays a key role in regulating the balance between aggression and avoidance in territorial disputes. The ERC-funded TERRITORY project will create a semi-natural lab environment to study how mice acquire territories over time, employing in vivo neural recording and computational modelling techniques to explore the mechanisms behind territory-based decision-making. Understanding the neural basis of territorial behaviours will offer valuable insights into human aggression and fear, with potential applications in addressing social and behavioural challenges.
Objective
The urge to defend one’s territory is an evolutionarily conserved instinct aimed at securing optimal access to food, mates, and shelter. Conflict arises when territories become unstable due to seasonal changes in resource availability, or when population density increases. Under such conditions, individuals must carefully balance social aggression and avoidance to maximize their control of territorial resources while avoiding subordination at the hands of their neighbors. What is the neural basis of such dynamic territorial behaviors? We have found that an evolutionarily conserved medial hypothalamic brain structure serves as a switch between social aggression and avoidance. In this proposal we ask where and how is territory encoded in the brain and how could it control this hypothalamic switch? A clue emerges from recent work in which we discovered that neural activity in this structure encodes a map of social space much like the mammalian hippocampus encodes a map of navigational space. However, unlike hippocampal place cells that arise spontaneously as animals explore, hypothalamic territory cells require social experience to form. We will develop a semi-natural laboratory testing environment where we can monitor the dynamic acquisition of territories in mice over time and apply in vivo neural recording, activity perturbation, and computational modelling to extract precise synaptic integration and plasticity mechanisms that underlie territory-based decision-making in the mammalian brain. Uncovering the neural basis of territorial behaviors is an essential step toward a biological understanding of human aggression and fear and could provide insight into interventions for maladaptive responses to threats to personal space, resources, and beliefs.
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-ADG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
69117 Heidelberg
Germany
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