Fig. 8: Activation of LSv neurons precedes emotional stress-induced grooming.

a Setup of fibre photometry to record calcium activity from LSv neurons infected with AAV9-Syn-GCaMP6s or AAV5-hSyn-eGFP virus. The correct expression of GCaMP6s and placement of the fibre optics were verified post-mortem. Scale bar 500 μm. b–f Typical results of calcium activity in LSv around the start of grooming in multiple bouts (left panel) and the averaged results (red traces, middle panel) in the body restraint model (b; n = 40 trails from five rats; ***P < 0.0001), light exposure model (c; n = 40 trails from four rats; ***P < 0.0001), swimming model (d; n = 40 trails from four rats), water spray model (e; n = 40 trails from six rats) and spontaneous grooming (f; n = 40 trails from four rats). There was significant rise in calcium activity (ΔF/F) prior to the start of the grooming in the body restraint and light exposure models but not the other models as shown in the right panels. ns non-significant; ns: not significant; Student’s paired two-tailed t-test. The blue traces represent signals from animals which expressed only eGFP but not GCaMP. All data are presented as mean ± SEM. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.