Extended Data Fig. 9. Activation of MeA^Vgat neurons can promote allogrooming during prosocial interaction.

a, Schematic of ChR2 activation in MeA^Vgat neurons. b, c, Duration of allogrooming (b) and sniffing (c) toward stressed partners during low-intensity photostimulations in ChR2 and EYFP control animals. The increase in sniffing (~1.5 s) appears to be substantially smaller than that in allogrooming (~5 s), suggesting that increased allogrooming is the predominant behavioral effect. d, Duration of triggered allogrooming when subject animals are in the vicinity of and attending to the partners (“optimal” condition) compared to all stimulations. Boxplots: median with quartiles, 1.5 × IQR and outliers. b, EYFP control, n = 119 trials in 11 mice (74 trials in 6 females and 45 trials in 5 males); ChR2, n = 141 trials in 12 mice (88 trials in 7 females and 53 trials in 5 males). c, EYFP control, n = 119 trials in 11 mice (74 trials in 6 females and 45 trials in 5 males); ChR2, n = 142 trials in 12 mice (89 trials in 7 females and 53 trials in 5 males). d, All condition, n = 78 trials in 5 male mice; optimal condition (subject within half a body-length and facing the partner), n = 53 trials in 5 male mice. b–d, Two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test. ***P < 0.001, **P < 0.01. For details of statistical analyses, see Supplementary Table 1.