Work

Estrogen Control of Social Behaviors

Year: 2025

Type: review

Abstract: Social behaviors, including parental care, mating, and fighting, all depend on the hormonal milieu of an organism. Decades of work highlighted estrogen as a key hormonal controller of social behaviors, exerting its influence primarily through binding to estrogen receptor alpha (ERα). Recent technological advances in chemogenetics, optogenetics, gene editing, and transgenic model organisms have allowed for a detailed understanding of the neuronal subpopulations and circuits for estrogen action across Esr1 -expressing interconnected brain regions. Focusing on rodent studies, in this review we examine classical and contemporary research demonstrating the multifaceted role of estrogen and ERα in regulating social behaviors in a sex-specific and context-dependent manner. We highlight gaps in knowledge, particularly a missing link in the molecular cascade that allows estrogen to exert such a diverse behavioral repertoire through the coordination of gene expression changes. Understanding the molecular and cellular basis of ERα’s action in social behaviors provides insights into the broader mechanisms of hormone-driven behavior modulation across the lifespan.

Source: Annual Review of Neuroscience

DOI: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-112723-041639

Authors: Oluwadamilola O. Lawal, Dayu Lin, Julieta E. Lischinsky

Institutions: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NYU Langone Health

Language: English

Topic: Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior

Subfield: Social Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Awards: Developmental, cellular and circuit mechanisms for social behaviors in the limbic system across sexes., G2323998924, G3285742735, The Neural Mechanisms of Winner and Loser Effect