Fig. 5

Activation of PV⁺ SC-LPTN pathway and PV⁺ SC-PBGN pathway mimicked dimorphic defensive behavioral patterns. a Coronal section (left) and micrograph (right) showing specific expression of ChR2-mCherry in SC PV⁺ neurons after AAV-DIO-ChR2-mCherry injection. Scale bars, 1 mm (left) and 20 μm (right). For single-channel micrographs and quantitative analyses, see Supplementary Fig. 6b. b A light-pulse train (473 nm, 10 Hz, 1 ms, 8 pulses, 20 mW) reliably triggered APs from ChR2-mCherry⁺ neurons in the acute SC slices. c Example micrographs showing optic fiber tracks above the ChR2-mCherry⁺ axon terminals in the PBGN (left) and LPTN (right). Scale bars, 0.3 mm. d Locomotion trails of example mice in home-cages before, during, and after optogenetic activation (10 Hz, 20 ms, 5 s, 20 mW) of PV⁺ SC-PBGN and PV⁺ SC-LPTN pathways. e Averaged time course of locomotion speed before, during, and after activation of the PV⁺ SC-PBGN (red, n = 15 mice) and PV⁺ SC-LPTN (blue, n = 15 mice) pathways. Cloudy area indicates SEM of the averaged data. Inset, heat-maps of locomotion speed of example mice. f, i Distributions of locomotion speed during vs. before (left) and after vs. before (right) optogenetic activation of the PV⁺ SC-PBGN (f) and PV⁺ SC-LPTN pathways (i). g, j Distribution of LSI_{during stimulation} and LSI_{after stimulation} of mice with (ChR2) or without (Ctrl) activation of the PV⁺ SC-PBGN (g) or SC-LPTN (j) pathways. h, k Quantitative analyses of locomotion speed before, during, and after optogenetic activation of the PV⁺ SC-PBGN (h) and SC-LPTN (k) pathways. For the analyses of PV⁺ SC-LDTN pathway, see Supplementary Fig. 6f and g. Data in (h, k) are means ± SEM (error bars). Numbers of mice are indicated in the bars. Statistical analysis was Student’s t test (***P < 0.001; n.s. P > 0.1)