Fig. 3: Optogenetic activation of dCA3 in naive mice leads to deficit in social discrimination. | Molecular Psychiatry

Fig. 3: Optogenetic activation of dCA3 in naive mice leads to deficit in social discrimination.

From: A short period of early life oxytocin treatment rescues social behavior dysfunction via suppression of hippocampal hyperactivity in male mice

Fig. 3

a Diagram of viral injection and fiber implantation strategy for photoactivation of dCA3 neurons in C57BL/6J mice. Scale bar, 80 μm. b ChR2-expressed neurons were activated by blue light stimulation (473 nm,10 HZ). c The behavioral design of the social discrimination test in a three-chamber task during photostimulation of dCA3 neruons in C57BL/6J mice. d ChR2-expressed mice in social discrimination test. Representative heatmaps for the ChR2-expressed group (d left). When receiving blue light stimulation, the ChR2-expressed group showed significantly decreased time spent interacting with the novel mouse (d middle, OFF: P = 0.0039, Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test; ON: P = 0.5968, paired t-test) and preference index (d right, P = 0.0021, unpaired t-test) for a stranger mouse, when compared to those before light stimulation. N = 9 mice. e Social preference test from mCherry-expressed group. Representative heatmaps for mCherry-expressed group (e left). The interaction time (e middle, OFF: P = 0.0033; ON, P = 0.0011; paired t-test) and preference index (e right, P = 0.5407, unpaired t-test) for the mCherry-expressed group did not show significant changes from before to after blue light stimulation. N = 9 mice. f The preference index for a stranger mouse. P = 0.0131, unpaired t-test. g Blue light was delivered to dCA3 only during the familiarization period. h The ChR2-expressed mice spent more time interacting with the stranger mouse than the familiar mouse regardless of the presence or absence of photostimulation in the prior familiarization period (h left, OFF: P = 0.0039, Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test; ON: P = 0.0017, paired t-test) and the preference index did not reveal any significant changes (h right, P = 0.2721, unpaired t-test). N = 9 mice. i The mCherry-expressed group spent more time exploring the stranger mouse than the familiar mouse (i left, OFF: P = 0.0033; ON: P < 0.0001; paired t-test). The preference index did not show significant changes for the mCherry-expressed group (i right, P = 0.9090, Mann–Whitney U test). N = 9 mice. j The preference index for interacting with a stranger mouse. P = 0.1140, unpaired t-test. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; NS, not significant. Data presented as mean ± SEM.

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