Prioritization of social information by the basolateral amygdala in rats

•Basolateral amygdala (BLA) mediates responses to stimuli with affective salience.•Important question is whether BLA plays key role for stimuli with social relevance.•Conspecific urine provides many socially-relevant odor cues in rodents.•BLA inactivation in females altered preferences for female but not male urine odors.•BLA important for normal responses to stimuli with social relevance.