Figure 7. Acute chemogenetic activation of OXT signaling alters social interaction preference and neuronal response profile in the MeA.

(A) Structure of combined pharmacology and electrophysiology experiments. Sensory responses were determined prior to drug application (~50 min), followed by a 10 min baseline period. Drugs were injected IP, and a second baseline period was collected. Finally, sensory responses were determined after drug application. (B) Firing rate (spikes/second) for single units in the absence of sensory stimuli (abscissa: firing rate before CNO; ordinate: firing rate after CNO; log scale). Black points indicate single units that displayed a significant change in activity after CNO injection. (C) Responses of a single MeA unit to sensory stimuli before and after the mouse was injected with CNO. For each panel, raster plots indicating the timing of individual action potentials elicited by multiple presentations of the same stimulus (shaded region). Histograms of the mean response and standard error for the same data are shown below each raster plot. Time zero indicates alignment to the start of stimulus presentation. (D) Comparison of responses to male, female, and predator stimuli before and after CNO injection. Grey bars: percentage of single MeA units that responded to each stimulus (nonparametric ANOVA; p<=0.05). Colored bars: percentage of single units that responded most strongly for the indicated stimulus. Asterisks indicate a significant difference in the fraction of responsive units before and after CNO injection (permutation t-test; *p<0.05). (E, G) Selectivity of MeA units to sensory stimuli before (E) and after CNO injection (G). Each point represents the sensory responses of an individual unit with at least one significant response to male, female, or predator stimuli. (F) Comparison of response strength before and after CNO injection for all single units responding to a given stimulus. Grey points indicate single units with a statistically significant response to the stimulus plotted in each axis. Colored points indicate units with a significant response that was also the strongest response (compared with responses to the other stimuli). Abscissa: (post-pre)/(post + pre) prior to CNO injection. Ordinate: (post-pre)/(post + pre) after CNO injection.

Figure 7—figure supplement 1. Acute chemogenetic activation of OXT signaling alters social interaction preference.

(A) Representative traces of a subject mouse in a social interaction paradigm assessing the preference of the subject to investigate a pair of anesthetized female and male stimuli. The path traveled by the subject was tracked and time spent near each stimulus mouse was measured automatically by Ethovision. (B–C) Changes in the time spent in each interaction zone (t test) and social investigation preference scores (t test) of Oxt-iCre male mice after excitatory DREADD-mediated activation of OXT neurons in the PVN. The AAV8-DIO-hM3Dq-mCherry virus was stereotaxically injected into the PVN of Oxt-iCre male mice. The subjects performed social preference tests after saline injection, and 15 min, 2 days, 1 week and 2 weeks after CNO injection. **p<0.01, ns, not significant.