Skip to main content
. 2022 Mar 22;13:1532. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29155-1

Fig. 3. Anxiety-like behavior is associated with the dynamics of VTA → BLA neurons.

Fig. 3

a Experimental timeline. b Schematic of the brain surgery targeting the VTA → BLA circuit. c Confocal image showing morphological validation of the placement of the optic fiber (OF) above the VTA and the co-expression of TH labeling with AAVrg-Cre-eYFP X AAV-DIO-GCaMP6 in the C57BL6/J mouse VTA (scale bar, 100 μm); quantification shows 87% colocalization (3–4 sections per mouse from 3 mice). d–g Before CSDS. d (Top) Sample traces of GCamp6 ΔF/F signal (bars represent the mouse in open arms). (Bottom) 3D representation of the GCamp6 ΔF/F upon the mouse position within the EPM. e Correlation analyses of the time spent in EPM open arms with (top, Pearson, p = 0.02) the mean open arms AUC VTA → BLA activity and (bottom, Pearson, p = 0.02) with the number of events per minute (n = 23 mice, examined across 3 independent replicated experiments). f Dynamics of GCamp6 signal (mean z-scores ± s.e.m.) 5 s before and 5 s after the mice enter EPM closed arms, center and open arms. g Averaged GCamp6 z-scores across stress-naïve mice within a 1-s bin (−0.5 to +0.5 s) time-locked to EPM closed arms, center or open arms entries (mean ± s.e.m., ANOVA, F2/276 = 10.94 p = 2.6e−05; t = 4.32 p = 2.4e−05; t = 3.88 p = 1.7e−04, n = 80, 98,100 epochs). h–k After CSDS. h (Top) Sample traces of GCamp6 ΔF/F signal (bars represent the mouse in EPM open arms). (Bottom) 3D representation of the GCamp6 ΔF/F upon the mouse position within the EPM. i Correlation analyses of the time spent in EPM open arms with the mean open arms AUC VTA → BLA activity (top, Pearson, p = 0.001) and with the number of events per minute (bottom, Pearson, n = 23 mice, p = 0.0002). j (Left) Dynamics of GCamp6 signal (mean z-scores ± s.e.m.) 5 s before and 5 s after the socially stressed mice enter in EPM closed arms, center and open arms and (Right) related averaged GCamp6 z-scores across socially stressed mice within a 1-s bin (−0.5 to +0.5 s) time-locked to EPM closed arms, center or open arms entries in socially defeated mice (mean ± s.e.m., ANOVA, F2/188 = 11.79 1.5e−05; t = 4.71 p = 0.001; t = 3.25 p = 0.003, n = 46, 65, 79 epochs). k Same as j in stress-naïve CTL mice (mean ± s.e.m., ANOVA, F2/92 = 10.59 p = 4.4e−05, t = 4.11 p = 0.001; t = 3.9 p = 0.001; n = 30, 30, 35 epochs). In all panels, two-sided statistical analyses and corrected post hoc tests were performed, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. See also Supplementary Figs. 4 and 5.