Figure 7. Repeated, chronic stimulation of PVVP→VTA terminals is sufficient to induce social interaction deficits.
(A) Experimental timeline for B–G.
(B–D) Repeated stimulation of VP PV terminals in VTA is sufficient to induce social avoidance (B), but has no effect on SPT (C) or TST (D). Mann-Whitney test; U = 162, * p < .05; n = 15, 14 for eGFP and ChR2 groups, respectively for SI and TST test, n = 7 for SPT).
(E–G) No effect of repeated stimulation of VP PV terminals in LHb in SI (E), SPT (F), or TST (G); n = 5 each condition.
(H–J) No change in depressive like phenotypes after subthreshold defeat stress with VP PV terminal stimulation in LHb (n = 5 each SI, SPT, TST). All data tested on Mann-Whitney U-test and presented as mean ± SEM. Red dashed lines indicate levels separating resilient and susceptible animals (SI ratio of 1 and 50% sucrose preference for SI, SPT, respectively).