Fig. 1—

Intracranial injection of shRNA in the BLA produced knockdown (KD) of the Orx₁ or Orx₂ receptors, with scramble shRNA as control [from (Arendt et al., 2014)]. Intra-BLA KD of Orx₁ receptors (dark gray bars) had no effect on measures of anxious behavior such as A) time spent in the center of the open field (OF; Orx₁:t₁₀ =1.0, p ≥ 0.33), B) Susceptibility / Resilience scores (time near container with a social target / time near a novel container lacking a social target × 100; such that a score < 100 indicates susceptibility, and a score > 100 indicates resilience) in the Social Interaction/Preference test (SIP Orx₁:t₁₀ = 0.9, p ≥ 0.39), or EPM (data not shown), but did C) reduce locomotion (Orx₁:t₁₂ = 2.5, p ≤ 0.033) compared to scramble controls (white bars). Conversely, Orx₂ receptor KD in the BLA (light gray bars) was anxiogenic, reducing A) OF center time (Orx₂: t₁₁ = 2.7, p ≤ 0.021),B) Susceptibility / Resilience scores in SIP test (Orx₂: t₁₁ = 2.4, p ≤ 0.037), but C) did not reduce locomotion (Orx₂: t₁₂ =1.5, p ≥ 0.16) compared to scramble shRNA controls.