Fig. 5. A negative correlation between dopaminergic cell firing in the ventral tegmental area and social interaction score.

a To evaluate the regulatory strength of the dopaminergic activity on social behaviors in the above DREADD experiment, individual firing rates of the putative VTA dopaminergic neurons in Fig. 4 were averaged for each rat, plotted against their social interaction scores (i.e., their sniffing duration) and subjected to the Pearson’s correlation analysis. b Similarly, resting-state dopamine concentrations in the prelimbic cortex were subjected to the correlation analysis with social interaction scores. A rat losing the cannulation probe was excluded from the final analysis. Animal allocation and data sharing between Figs. 4 and 5 are presented in Supplemental Table S1.