Berkan Şahin
Recent optogenetic evidence demonstrates that dCA1 projections to the nucleus accumbens and lateral septum differentially regulate social and locomotor behavior through projection-specific optogenetic manipulation. We argue that the social interaction assay conflates social motivation with social cognition, two neurobiologically and clinically dissociable processes, and that resolving this distinction, alongside incorporation of sex as a biological variable, will be necessary to specify the broader significance of the dCA1 → NAc pathway for conditions affecting social behavior.