Fig. 5.

Treatments targeting Orx receptors in the BLA promote transfer learning from the SAM to the OF Test in Stay mice. A) In the SAM, the amount of time spent in the center of the arena is not different between Escape and Stay animals in the vehicle control group, but phenotype divergence occurs after intra-BLA Orx₁R antagonism with Stay mice spending more time in the center. Further, Escape mice treated with an Orx₂R agonist display increased time in the center of the SAM arena. B) While Escape and Stay vehicle-treated mice did not show differences in the amount of time spent in the center of the OF Test, intra-BLA Orx₁R antagonism, Orx₂R antagonism, and Orx₁R Stimulation prompted phenotype separation with Stay animals spending more time in the center of the OF (Phenotype Effect, F_1,43 = 15.0, p < 0.001). C) Regression analysis revealed a significant and positive relationship (F_1,8 = 16.8, R² = 0.6780, p ≤ 0.0034) between time spent in the center of the SAM and time spent in the center of the OF Test after intra-BLA Orx₁R antagonism in Stay animals, but not in vehicle-treated Stay mice (dotted gray line represents vehicle control regression line, F_1,12 = 2.1, R² = 0.1631, p ≥ 0.1712). D) Examples of tracking software maps for Orx₁R antagonist-treated Stay mice that prefer the edges of the SAM and OF Test (top) and Stay that are biased toward the center regions (bottom). E) Significant and positive correlations exist for time spent in the center of the SAM and time spent in the center of the OF Test for Stay mice treated with an Orx₂R antagonist (F_1,5 = 13.5, R² = 0.7293, p ≤ 0.0144; dotted gray line represents vehicle control regression line) or F) an Orx₂R agonist (F_1,4 = 40.2, R² = 0.9096, p ≤ 0.0032; dotted gray line represents vehicle control regression line). ⁻p ≤ 0.05 for comparisons between phenotypes in the same treatment group; ^!p ≤ 0.05 for comparisons to Orx_A-treated mice of the same phenotype.