A cluster of nerve cells have founded their own tiny fight club. These cells, nestled deep in a primitive part of the brain, compel mice to aggressively maul not just intruder males, but also females and blown-up rubber gloves, a study finds. What’s more, the fight cells have an intertwined and thorny relationship with nearby “mate” cells, a discovery that may shed light on human sexual violence.
“This is absolutely awesome,” says neuroscientist Newton Canteras of the University of São Paulo, who was not involved in the study. “They [researchers] were able to pinpoint one tiny region in the hypothalamus that is responsible for the aggressive response.”
The research, led by Dayu Lin of Caltech, who is now at New York University, was published in the Feb. 10 Nature.
Earlier studies had pointed to the hypothalamus, an almond-sized structure important for hunger, thirst and body temperature, as an aggression center in the brain. Electrical stimulation there made cats and rats attack targets. But researchers didn’t have a clear idea of where in the hypothalamus the fight neurons reside.