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ORCID
N/A
Access Type
Open Access Thesis
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Neuroscience & Behavior
Degree Type
Master of Science (M.S.)
Year Degree Awarded
2018
Month Degree Awarded
September
Abstract
The accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) processes pheromonal signals which in turn drive social behaviors. Here we identify a tract of aromatase-expressing (arom+) fibers in the dorsal lateral olfactory tract (dLOT) which terminate in the granule cell layer (GCL) of the AOB. We utilized a retrograde tracer in aromatase reporter animals to delineate the source of these fibers. We show that these input fibers emerge almost exclusively from a contiguous population of arom+ neurons that spans the bed nucleus of the accessory olfactory tract (BAOT) and posterioventral subnucleus of the medial amygdala (MeApv). This population of neurons expresses the estrogen receptor alpha and contains more aromatase neurons in male mice than female mice. Thus, this population of feedback neurons can detect neuroendocrine changes and modulate the output of AOB projection neurons in a way that is sexually dimorphic and could influence every downstream target of the AOB.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/12766050
First Advisor
Joseph Bergan
Second Advisor
Mariana Pereira
Third Advisor
Luke Remage-Healey
Recommended Citation
Inbar, Tal, "A Precise Steroid-responsive Centrifugal Feedback Projection to the Accessory Olfactory Bulb" (2018). Masters Theses. 690.
https://doi.org/10.7275/12766050
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/690