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Impairments in identifying and responding to the emotions of others manifest in a variety of psychopathologies. Therefore, elaborating the neurobiological mechanisms that underpin social responses to social emotions, or social affective behavior, is a translationally important goal. The insular cortex is consistently implicated in stress-related social and anxiety disorders, which are associated with diminished ability to make and use inferences about the emotions of others to guide behavior. We investigated how corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), a neuromodulator evoked upon exposure to stressed conspecifics, influenced the insula. We hypothesized that social affective behavior requires CRF signaling in the insular cortex in order to detect stress in social interactions. In acute slices from male and female rats, CRF depolarized insular pyramidal neurons. In males, but not females, CRF suppressed presynaptic GABAergic inhibition leading to greater excitatory synaptic efficacy in a CRF receptor 1 (CRF1)- and cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1)-dependent fashion. In males only, insular CRF increased social investigation, and CRF1 and CB1 antagonists interfered with social interactions with stressed conspecifics. To investigate the molecular and cellular basis for the effect of CRF we examined insular CRF1 and CB1 mRNAs and found greater total insula CRF1 mRNA in females but greater CRF1 and CB1 mRNA colocalization in male insular cortex glutamatergic neurons that suggest complex, sex-specific organization of CRF and endocannabinoid systems. Together these results reveal a new mechanism by which stress and affect contribute to social affective behavior.

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