Building Neural Choice Points for Love and War

The molecular specification of central circuits that coordinate expression of innate behaviors in response to specific sensory cues from the environment remains a puzzle. In this issue of Neuron, Choi, Dong, and colleagues used expression profiling and genetic axonal tracing to visualize a hypothalamic point of convergence for defensive and reproductive olfactory cues that may function as a gating mechanism for sensory activation of defensive responses over reproduction.