Control of innate olfactory valence by segregated cortical amygdala circuits.
Overview
- Department of Neurobiology, University of California, San Diego La Jolla United States
- Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego La Jolla United States
- Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego La Jolla United States
- Center for Circadian Biology, University of California, San Diego La Jolla United States
- Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University New York United States
- Salk Institute for Biological Sciences La Jolla United States
- Department of Pathology, University of California, San Diego La Jolla United States
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute La Jolla United States
Abstract
Animals exhibit innate behaviors that are stereotyped responses to specific evolutionarily relevant stimuli in the absence of prior learning or experience. The posterolateral cortical amygdala (plCoA) mediates innate attraction and aversion to odor. Here, we sought to define the circuit features of plCoA that give rise to innate attraction and aversion to odor in mice. First, we examined odor-evoked responses in these areas and found sparse encoding of odor identity, but not valence. We next considered a topographic organization and found that optogenetic stimulation of the anterior and posterior domains of plCoA elicits avoidance and attraction, respectively, suggesting a functional axis for valence. Using single-cell and spatial RNA sequencing, we identified the molecular cell types in plCoA, revealing an anteroposterior gradient in glutamatergic neurons that are sufficient and partially necessary for behavior. Finally, we identified topographically organized projections, whereby anterior neurons preferentially project to medial amygdala, and posterior neurons preferentially project to nucleus accumbens, which are respectively sufficient and necessary for innate attraction and aversion. Together, these data support a model whereby distinct, topographically distributed plCoA populations direct innate olfactory responses by signaling to divergent valence-specific targets, linking upstream olfactory identity to downstream valence behaviors, through a population code.
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
Code
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Zenodo 12601490
Availability: 1 check, the latest on 30 September 2026: the link answers (HTTP 200)
- 30 September 2026: the link answers (HTTP 200)
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Data
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Data availability
The RNA sequencing data is deposited in GEO (accession number GSE270798). The code used to analyze all data and generate all graphs can be found online at Zenodo.
The following datasets were generated:
HoweJ 2024Control of innate olfactory valence by segregated cortical amygdala circuitsNCBI Gene Expression OmnibusGSE27079810.7554/
HoweJ 2024Control of innate olfactory valence by segregated cortical amygdala circuitsZenodo10.5281/
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
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Version 1, 30 September 2026: the first record
Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 13 authors, 6 keywords, 11 MeSH terms, 9 funders, 91 references, 10 RRIDs.
Cite
This paper
Howe, J. R., Chan, C. L., Lee, D., Blanquart, M., Lee, J. H., Decoster, L., Romero, H. K., Zadina, A. N., Lemieux, M. E., Mills, F., Desplats, P. A., Tye, K. M., & Root, C. M. (2026). Control of innate olfactory valence by segregated cortical amygdala circuits. eLife, 14, RP104677. https://
BibTeX
@article{howe2026control
author = {Howe, James R and Chan, Chung Lung and Lee, Donghyung and Blanquart, Marlon and Lee, James H and Decoster, Laurine and Romero, Haylie K and Zadina, Abigail N and Lemieux, Mackenzie E and Mills, Fergil and Desplats, Paula A and Tye, Kay M and Root, Cory M},
title = {{Control of innate olfactory valence by segregated cortical amygdala circuits}},
journal = {eLife},
year = {2026},
month = mar,
volume = {14},
pages = {RP104677},
publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd},
issn = {2050-084X},
doi = {10.7554/
url = {https://
pmid = {41870253},
pmcid = {PMC13008359}
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
AU - Howe, James R
AU - Chan, Chung Lung
AU - Lee, Donghyung
AU - Blanquart, Marlon
AU - Lee, James H
AU - Decoster, Laurine
AU - Romero, Haylie K
AU - Zadina, Abigail N
AU - Lemieux, Mackenzie E
AU - Mills, Fergil
AU - Desplats, Paula A
AU - Tye, Kay M
AU - Root, Cory M
TI - Control of innate olfactory valence by segregated cortical amygdala circuits
T2 - eLife
J2 - eLife
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/
VL - 14
SP - RP104677
SN - 2050-084X
PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
DO - 10.7554/
UR - https://
LA - en
ER -
CSL-JSON
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