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. 2011 Mar 2;5:13. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2011.00013

Figure 1.

Figure 1

An evolutionarily conserved suite of brain regions that regulate vertebrate social behavior. (A) The core components of the social behavior network include numerous areas of the basal forebrain – the medial extended amygdala (medial amygdala, MeA, or taenial amygdala, TnA, plus the medial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, BSTm), medial preoptic area (mPOA), anterior hypothalamus (AH), ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH), and lateral septum (LS), as well as areas of the midbrain, most notably the central gray (CG; or periaqueductal gray, PAG) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Modified from Newman (1999) and Maney et al. (2008). (B) A photomontage of a female zebra finch brain at the level of the anterior commissure (AC). Immunocytochemical triple-labeling for vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), neuropeptide Y (NPY), and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) shows the location of the AH and multiple zones of the LS, BST, and VMH. The topography shown here is very similar across vertebrate groups, particularly among amniotes. Scale bar = 200 μm. Modified from Goodson, 2005. Other abbreviations: BSTl, lateral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis; Hp, hippocampus; LH, lateral hypothalamus; LSc, caudal division of the lateral septum (dorsal, ventrolateral, and ventral zones denoted as LSc.d, LSc.vl, and LSc.v, respectively); LSr, rostral division of the lateral septum; ME, median eminence; MS, medial septum; MSib, internal band of the medial septum; ot, optic tract; OM, occipitomesencephalic tract; PVN, paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus; SH, septohippocampal septum; v, lateral ventricle.