Adult male mice emit highly complex
ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in response to
female conspecifics. Such USVs,
thought to facilitate
courtship behaviors, are routinely measured as a behavioral index in
mouse models of neurodevelopmental and
psychiatric disorders such as
autism. While the
regulation of USVs by genetic factors has been extensively characterized, the neural mechanisms that control USV
production remain largely unknown. Here, we
report that
optogenetic activation of the
medial preoptic area (mPOA) elicited the
production of USVs that were acoustically
similar to
courtship USVs in
adult mice. Moreover, mPOA vesicular
GABA transporter-positive (Vgat +)
neurons were more effective at driving USV
production than
vesicular glutamate transporter 2-positive
neurons. Furthermore, ablation of mPOA Vgat+
neurons resulted in altered spectral features and syllable usage of USVs in targeted
males. Together, these results demonstrate that the mPOA
plays a crucial
role in modulating
courtship USVs and this may serve as an entry point for
future dissection of the neural circuitry underlying USV
production.