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. 2016 Dec 22;7:13721. doi: 10.1038/ncomms13721

Figure 4. vHPC input to the mAON impairs olfaction-dependent behaviours.

Figure 4

(a) AAV-mediated expression of ChR2-YFP in the vHPC driven by the human synapsin promoter (hSyn) produced dense terminal fields localized to the mAON. (b) Example traces from in vitro current-clamped mAON neurons in response to stimulation of ChR2-containing vHPC terminals (5 ms pulses, 4 Hz, 5 mW). Cells showed reliable spiking activity (n=1) or EPSPs (n=6) following light pulses, while some exhibited no response (n=2). (c) In vivo stimulation of the vHPC-mAON pathway (5 ms pulses, 4 Hz, 1 mW) significantly increased the latency to locate a buried food reward compared with control mice (n=8 per group, two-way ANOVA interaction F(2,28)=3.60, P<0.05; session 2, t(14)=2.47, P<0.05). (d) In the absence of photostimulation, ChR2 and GFP mice showed no difference in the proportion of time spent investigating a novel conspecific versus an empty cage (left: ChR2 n=7, GFP n=8; independent-samples t-test, t(13)=0.48, P=0.64). However, photostimulation impaired the ability of ChR2 mice to distinguish between a novel and familiar conspecific (right: independent-samples t-test, t(13)=2.38, P<0.05; paired-samples t-tests, GFP group t(7)=3.25, P<0.01, ChR2 group t(6)=0.60, ns; absolute investigation time for novel conspecific between groups, t(13)=0.28, ns). ANOVA, analysis of variance.