Figure 1.

CREB mutant mice exhibit decreased Fos protein expression in response to stress but not to cocaine. Although wild-type mice exhibit an increase in Fos protein in the ventral (a) and dorsal (b) BNST, lateral septum (c), and the nucleus accumbens shell (d) in response to forced swim stress, CREBαΔ mutant mice do not. This decreased stress response is not seen in the nucleus accumbens core (e), lateral hypothalamus (f), prelimbic cortex (g), or infralimbic cortex (h). No differences were seen between the genotypes in response to an acute cocaine injection (a–h). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 compared with control; ^#p < 0.05 pairwise comparison for wild-type versus mutant forced swim test (FST).