Innate behaviors meet multiple needs adaptively and in a serial order, suggesting the existence of a hitherto elusive brain dynamics that brings together representations of upcoming behaviors during their selection. Here we show that during behavioral transitions, possible upcoming behaviors are encoded by specific signatures of neuronal populations in the lateral hypothalamus (LH) that are active near beta oscillation peaks. Optogenetic recruitment of intrahypothalamic inhibition at this phase eliminates behavioral transitions. We show that transitions are elicited by beta-rhythmic inputs from the prefrontal cortex that spontaneously synchronize with LH ‘transition cells’ encoding multiple behaviors. Downstream of the LH, dopamine neurons increase firing during beta oscillations and also encode behavioral transitions. Thus, a hypothalamic transition state signals alternative future behaviors, encodes the one most likely to be selected and enables rapid coordination with cognitive and reward-processing circuitries, commanding adaptive social contact and eating behaviors.

先天行为以连续的顺序适应性地满足多种需求，这表明存在迄今为止难以捉摸的大脑动力学，它将在选择过程中将即将发生的行为的表征汇集在一起​​。在这里，我们表明，在行为转变期间，可能即将发生的行为是由下丘脑外侧（LH）中在β振荡峰值附近活跃的神经元群的特定特征编码的。在此阶段下丘脑内抑制的光遗传学募集消除了行为转变。我们发现，转变是由来自前额皮质的 β 节律输入引发的，这些输入自发地与编码多种行为的 LH“转变细胞”同步。 LH 下游的多巴胺神经元在 β 振荡期间增加放电，并编码行为转变。因此，下丘脑过渡状态发出替代的未来行为信号，对最有可能被选择的行为进行编码，并能够与认知和奖励处理回路快速协调，指挥适应性社交接触和饮食行为。