Generating appropriate behavioural responses to sensory cues is crucial to ensure the survival of species, and it is a primary skill that has evolved over millions of years. Aggression is one of such essential behaviours, and animals are frequently faced with a decision of whether to engage in a fight over food, shelter, and mates. One of the main goals in Neuroscience is to understand how the brain performs the computations underlying these decisions, and in particular, how specific sensory cues are processed and transformed into relevant behavioural responses.
In order to understand the neural computations underlying a specific behaviour one requires detailed knowledge of the neurons and circuits involved and how their biophysical properties are used for processing information. We used mice as a model and focused on understanding the neural computations in aggressive behaviour. Aggressive behaviour is essential for animals to ensure their survival, however when inappropriately expressed can be detrimental to the animal's health and well-being. In both mice and in humans, the neurons responsible for aggression are located in the hypothalamus area of the brain. Using the state of art techniques such as electrophysiology, calcium imaging and CRISPR/Cas9 manipulations we looked at specific populations of neurons in the mouse hypothalamus to determine the mechanistic explanation of their activity during aggressive behaviour. Our findings provide answers to fundamental questions, such as understanding how the brain processes information from the outside world and converts it in into behaviour, as well as could lead to potential treatments for controlling aggression.
