Figure 2. Transient optogenetic silencing of young abDGCs impaired behavioral performance and online information processing during location discrimination (LD).
(A) Illustration of the LD task. The rewarded window was reversed when a mouse reached criterion performance in a given block. (B) Experimental timeline. (C) Behavioral performance measured as the number of trials to reach criterion in the baseline blocks and the laser illumination blocks, in the ArchT-GFP group and the GFP-control group, performing the difficult separation condition (i): [repeated measures two-way ANOVA, significant illumination effect: F1,10 = 18.76, p<0.01; significant group effect F1,10 = 6.28, p<0.05; significant mice group × illumination interaction: F1,10 = 13.14, p<0.01; Post hoc Bonferroni tests: ArchT-GFP vs. GFP-control groups for illumination blocks: p<0.01; for baseline blocks: p>0.05], (ii) the easy separation condition, (iii) the difficult separation condition with optogenetic silencing during ITI, and (iv) the difficult separation condition during retest. Only the ArchT-GFP group’s performance was impaired coincident with optogenetic silencing, and only in the difficult separation condition during the 5–10 week window. (D) The success rate achieved by various experimental conditions, calculated for trials where laser illumination was delivered. The success rate was significantly decreased in the ArchT-GFP group performing the difficult separation compared to the control group. [Repeated measure two-way ANOVA, significant group effect: F1,8 = 11.50, p<0.01; Post hoc Bonferroni tests: ArchT-GFP vs. GFP-control groups for initial difficult separation: p<0.01; for the re-test: p>0.05]. **p<0.01. Error bars indicate.