Figure 8.

Optoception is not a generic sensation that can be generalized across regions, instead is a specific experience. A, Left panel, Two optic fibers, one implanted in the NAc and the second in the lateral cerebellum from the same hemisphere. Right panel, Histology of implantation sites in the same two regions but now in the VGAT-ChR2 mice. B, Sessions to reach learning criteria from the optogenetic cue-alternation task. Each dot represents a mouse. C, Percent correct of cue trials; we plotted the first three and the last three sessions, in which mice first used optogenetic perturbations in the NAc to solve the task, and then it was switched to stimulation in the lateral cerebellum. In the first session, task performance dropped to chance with lateral cerebellum perturbation (see red arrow), suggesting that animals did not feel similar sensory qualia. Nevertheless, they can also learn to use lateral cerebellum perturbations to guide behavior after the training. In one session, some mice were tested in a Fake laser condition. Finally, we randomly interleaved stimulations from both brain regions within the same session. Surprisingly, after learning, they can indistinctly use randomly interleaved stimulations from both brain regions to guide behavior. Error bars indicate SEM.