The role of preoptic GABAergic inhibitory neurons was addressed in parenting, anxiety and depression. Pup exposure and forced swimming resulted in similar c-Fos activation pattern in neurons expressing vesicular GABA transporter in the preoptic area with generally stronger labeling and different distributional pattern in females than in males. Chemogenetic stimulation of preoptic GABAergic cells resulted in elevated maternal motivation and caring behavior in females and mothers but aggression toward pups in males. Behavioral effects were the opposite following inhibition of preoptic GABAergic neurons suggesting their physiological relevance. In addition, increased anxiety-like and depression-like behaviors were found following chemogenetic stimulation of the same neurons in females, whereas previous pup exposure increased only anxiety-like behavior suggesting that not the pups, but overstimulation of the cells can lead to depression-like behavior. A sexually dimorphic projection pattern of preoptic GABAergic neurons was also identified, which could mediate sex-dependent parenting and associated emotional behaviors.

视前 GABA 能抑制神经元在育儿、焦虑和抑郁中的作用得到解决。幼崽暴露和强迫游泳导致类似的c-Fos在视前区表达囊泡 GABA 转运蛋白的神经元中的激活模式，女性与男性相比，通常具有更强的标记和不同的分布模式。视前 GABA 能细胞的化学遗传刺激导致雌性和母亲的母性动机和关怀行为升高，但对雄性幼崽的攻击性增加。抑制视前 GABA 能神经元后的行为效果相反，表明它们的生理相关性。此外，在对雌性相同神经元进行化学遗传刺激后，发现焦虑样和抑郁样行为增加，而之前的幼崽暴露仅增加了焦虑样行为，表明不是幼崽，而是细胞的过度刺激会导致抑郁——喜欢的行为。