西安交通大学王昌河等共同合作，近期取得重要工作进展。他们研究提出，性别差异的多巴胺能神经回路决定性别偏好。相关研究成果2025年1月10日在线发表于《科学》杂志上。

据介绍，社会性别偏好对于繁殖和生存至关重要。然而，对性别偏好相关社会决策进行编码的神经机制仍不清楚。

研究人员发现，雄性和雌性小鼠均表现出对雌性的偏好，但在面临生存威胁时会转变为对雄性的偏好；它们的这种偏好是由腹侧被盖区多巴胺能（VTA^DA）神经元兴奋性的两性差异变化所介导的。在雄性小鼠中，VTA^DA向伏隔核（NAc）的投射介导对雌性的偏好，而向内侧视前区的投射则介导对雄性的偏好。在雌性小鼠中，VTA^DA-NAc的放电模式变化决定了社会性别偏好。

总之，这一研究将VTA^DA神经元确定为社会决策的一个关键节点，并揭示了社会性别偏好背后存在性别差异的多巴胺能神经回路机制。

附：英文原文

Title: Sexually dimorphic dopaminergic circuits determine sex preference

Author: Anqi Wei, Anran Zhao, Chaowen Zheng, Nan Dong, Xu Cheng, Xueting Duan, Shuaijie Zhong, Xiaoying Liu, Jie Jian, Yuhao Qin, Yuxin Yang, Yuhao Gu, Bianbian Wang, Niki Gooya, Jingxiao Huo, Jingyu Yao, Weiwei Li, Kai Huang, Haiyao Liu, Fenghan Mao, Ruolin Wang, Mingjie Shao, Botao Wang, Yichi Zhang, Yang Chen, Qian Song, Rong Huang, Qiumin Qu, Chunxiang Zhang, Xinjiang Kang, Huadong Xu, Changhe Wang

Issue&Volume: 2025-01-10

Abstract: Sociosexual preference is critical for reproduction and survival. However, neural mechanisms encoding social decisions on sex preference remain unclear. In this study, we show that both male and female mice exhibit female preference but shift to male preference when facing survival threats; their preference is mediated by the dimorphic changes in the excitability of ventral tegmental area dopaminergic (VTADA) neurons. In males, VTADA projections to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) mediate female preference, and those to the medial preoptic area mediate male preference. In females, firing-pattern (phasic-like versus tonic-like) alteration of the VTADA-NAc projection determines sociosexual preferences. These findings define VTADA neurons as a key node for social decision-making and reveal the sexually dimorphic DA circuit mechanisms underlying sociosexual preference.

DOI: adq7001

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq7001