Supplementary Figure 6: (related to Fig. 3d-e). Correlation of extent of infection in different hypothalamic areas and defensive behaviors in mice locally injected with AAVSyn:: Venus-2A-hM4D in VMHvl.

Extent of infection (total bilateral area) in (a) VMHvl, (b) VMHdm, (c) lateral hypothalamus (LH), and (d) tuberal nucleus plotted against the amount of defensive behaviors displayed by CNO treated animals in response to exposure to an aggressive conspecific. Correlation between the extent of infection and defensive behavior was calculated by MANCOVA (P = 0.032) followed by pairwise correlations with VMHvl (Pearson's r = – 0.708, P < 0.01), VMHdm (Pearson's r = – 0.524, P > 0.05), LH (Pearson's r = – 0.482, P > 0.05), and tuberal (Pearson's r = – 0.315, P > 0.05) nuclei. For the statistical analysis outliers (reported in lighter grey) showing poor infection (< 20,000 μm2 total infection, N = 3) or behavior (> 1.5 x IQR above third quartile, N = 2) were excluded. (e) A significantly lower extent of infection was seen in VMHdm compared to VMHvl in these animals (N =19, * P < 0.05). (f) Scheme of the areas used for quantification of each region. Rectangular areas were matched on nuclei from a standard atlas [22]. For quantification in the tuberal nucleus we considered the area located in the base of the tuberal region of the hypothalamus, just laterally to the VMHvl as described by [10].