Fig. 2: Mixed selectivity tone CS+ and shock US coding of MGB neurons upon fear conditioning. | Nature Communications

Fig. 2: Mixed selectivity tone CS+ and shock US coding of MGB neurons upon fear conditioning.

From: Single cell plasticity and population coding stability in auditory thalamus upon associative learning

Fig. 2

a Details of the 4-day fear conditioning paradigm. b Conditioned stimulus (CS) CS+ and CS− freezing (mean ± s.e.m.) during the habituation, fear conditioning as well as extinction days (Ext. 1, Ext. 2. e and l indicate early and late phases of extinction, i.e., the first four or last four CS+ of the session. Friedman test, p < 0.001, followed by Dunn’s multiple comparisons test, Ext.1e vs Ext.1 l p = 0.0069, Ext.1e vs Ext.2 l p = 0.0002, Ext.2e vs Ext.2 l p = 0.0281, N = 15 mice). Boxplots represent median, 2nd, 3rd quartile, minimum and maximum. Cross indicates mean. c Population response of one example animal to the CS+ and US (unconditioned stimulus, mean ± s.e.m.). Blue dots indicate CS+ tone pips. Green bar indicates shock US. Example cell response to the CS+ (d) and US (e). Mean ± s.e.m. of five trials. Dots indicate CS+ tone pips. Inset represents average response to single pips. f Proportion of CS+, CS− and US responsive neurons. Friedman test, p < 0.001, followed by Dunn’s multiple comparisons test: CS+ vs. US, p = 0,029; CS− vs. US, p = 0.0005 (N = 9 mice). Boxplots represent median, 2nd, 3rd quartile, minimum and maximum. Cross indicates mean. g Proportion of mixed selectivity CS± and US coding neurons. Red line indicates chance overlap level (N = 9 mice). Boxplots represent median, 2nd, 3rd quartile, minimum and maximum. Cross indicates mean. h Example spatial map of unisensory and multisensory mixed selectivity CS and US coding neurons in MGB. i Relationship between within response group and across response group pairwise spatial distance between neurons (N = 855 cells, N = 9 mice). j Cumulative distribution function of pairwise distances between all, US-responsive, CS+ and CS− responsive neurons (N = 855 cells, N = 9 mice). k Mean Ca2+ activity (± s.e.m) of sound-correlated neurons during shock evoked sound events e.g., mouse escape sounds and low frequency harmonic vocalizations (LFH, orange), the first CS+ pip (blue) and the US (green) from N = 550 CS+/US or N = 4956 sound event trials from 110 cells out of N = 3 mice. *, **, *** indicate p values smaller than 0.05, 0.01 and 0.001, respectively.

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