A Single-Neuron Chemosensory Switch Determines the Valence of a Sexually Dimorphic Sensory Behavior.

Biological sex, a fundamental dimension of internal state, can modulate neural circuits to generate behavioral variation. Understanding how and why circuits are tuned by sex can provide important insights into neural and behavioral plasticity. Here we find that sexually dimorphic behavioral responses to C.

Sex, age, and hunger regulate behavioral prioritization through dynamic modulation of chemoreceptor expression.

Background: Adaptive behavioral prioritization requires flexible outputs from fixed neural circuits. In C. elegans, the prioritization of feeding versus mate searching depends on biological sex (males will abandon food to search for mates, whereas hermaphrodites will not) as well as developmental stage and feeding status.

Sexual modulation of neural circuits and behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Sex differences in behavior-both sex-specific and shared behaviors-are fundamental to nearly all animal species. One often overlooked mechanism by which these behavioral differences can be generated is through sex-specific modulation of shared circuitry (i.e.