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. 2023 Jan 16;28(3):1090–1100. doi: 10.1038/s41380-022-01922-y

Fig. 3. Selective activation of LS neurons decreased pain threshold and induced anxiety-like behaviors.

Fig. 3

A Schematics of the experiment. Coronal section showing ChR2-mCherry expression and optical fiber insertion in the LS. Scale bar, 100 μm. B (Left) Sample traces of in vivo photo-tagged single unit spike recordings and (Right) normalized spikes waveforms. C Example rasters of spike trains recorded while a 20 Hz train of light pulses (started at time 0) ChR2-optogenetically activated GABAergic LS neurons. (Right) Firing activity of neurons upon ChR2-optogenetic stimulation. The behavioral effects of optogenetic activation of LS GABAergic neurons were assessed by (D) mechanical pain threshold, E OFT exploration, F (Left) total distance traversed in the OFT, (Right) time spent in central of OFT, G EPM exploration, H (Left) Total entries in arms, and (Right) time spent in open arms. I Experimental scheme of chemogenetic virus injection and behavioral tests. Coronal section showing the expression of hM3Dq-mCherry in the LS of Vgat-Cre mice. Scale bar, 100 μm. J–K Firing activity of neurons upon CNO-stimulated hM3Dq-expressing LS neurons. Data presented as in (B–C). L–P The behavioral effects of chemogenetic manipulation of LS GABAergic neurons were assessed exactly as in (D–H), with similar result. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. ns, no significant difference (P > 0.05). Data are presented as the means ± SEM. For further details of statistical data analysis see Table S1.