a Heatmap representing the level of significance of overlaps between mice and men gene modules (two-sided Fisher Exact Test). The highest overlap (P = 8.36E-49) was obtained for the man/yellow and mouse/brown modules. b WGCNA gene modules in the mouse and men ACC. The tables depict associations between each module’s eigengene and optogenetic stimulation in mice (left panel), or MDD diagnosis in men (right), and show both r correlation coefficients and P values (in brackets). c Gene Ontology analysis for man/yellow and mouse/brown modules, with most significant findings for myelin-related terms in both species (two-sided Fisher Exact Test). d The absolute value of the module membership (MM) of oligodendrocytes (OL) markers (OL genes) was significantly higher than the MM of all genes in each module, for both mouse/brown (n = 1088 genes total, n = 43 OL genes; left panel; P value < 2.2E-16) or man/yellow (n = 1049 genes total, n = 52 OL genes, right panel; P value < 2.2E-16) modules (two-sided paired t test). e Significant Pearson correlation between mouse/brown and man/yellow MM rankings (r² = 0.52, P = 0.0001). Red dots indicate myelin- and oligodendrocyte-related genes/genes also present in the Lein-Oligodendrocytes-Markers database. f Pearson linear regression of fold changes measured by RNA sequencing for men and mouse, showing a significant positive correlation in the direction of the change in expression of the genes in mouse/brown and man/yellow modules (r² = 0.37, P < 0.0001). Red dots indicate myelin and oligodendrocyte-related genes. g Repeated activation of the BLA–ACC decreased grooming time in stimulated animals in the splash test (ctrl n = 8 mice; 107.6 ± 3.65; stim n = 7 mice; 63.57 ± 6.96; P < 0.0001). h Linear regression of fold changes measured by RNA sequencing and qPCR, showing a significant positive correlation between the two methods (r² = 0.42, P = 0.0025). i Downregulation of the myelin-related genes (Mbp, P = 0.044; Mog, P = 0.026; Aspa, P = 0.078; Mal, P = 0.038; Plp1, P = 0.080; Ermn, P = 0.180; Ugt8, P = 0.133) and upregulation of inhibitors of the myelination process (Lingo1, P = 0.114; Sema4a, P = 0.154) were consistent across mice and men in RNA-Sequencing data, and validated in mice by qPCR, after nine stimulations. Data are mean ± SEM, ***P < 0.0001, two-tailed (Splash Test) and one-tailed (qPCR) unpaired t test. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.