Fig. 1: Selective blockade of MPFC-to-LH circuit diminished susceptibility to others’ reward.

a Social Pavlovian conditioning procedure. b Two sets of three conditioned stimuli. Each stimulus was associated with self-reward and partner-reward probabilities. c Correlations between licking frequency and variable-reward probability in vehicle (left) and DCZ (middle) conditions. Licking frequency is z-score normalized. Data are mean ± SEM. P values from two-sided Spearman’s correlation test (total n = 1300, 1229, 1267, and 1229 trials in the vehicle-self, DCZ-self, vehicle-partner, and DCZ-partner condition, respectively, in MkP; total n = 3834, 3705, 3594, and 3408 trials in the vehicle-self, DCZ-self, vehicle-partner, and DCZ-partner condition, respectively, in MkA). Monte Carlo permutation results (right). Bars indicate differences in shuffled licking modulation between vehicle and DCZ conditions (n = 1000). Red arrowheads indicate actual differences. d Dual viral vector infection. Vector constructs for circuit-selective blocking (left). Alternation of vehicle and DCZ experiments (right). e Spatial coordinates of injection sites in the MPFC in MkA (top). Blue lines correspond to those in Fig. 1f, inset. Orange circles indicate injection coordinates viewed from top. Note that, in both monkeys, injections were made at eight sites in each hemisphere (i.e., two different depths at four different rostro-caudal coordinates; see Methods). SSS, superior sagittal sinus. The most caudal injection sites were located 4.5 mm anteriorly to the physiological border between the supplementary motor area (SMA) and pre-SMA. Nissl-stained section for injection sites in the LH in MkA (bottom). Yellow arrow indicates gliosis caused by injectrode penetrations (left). Scale bar, 5 mm. Enlarged view of the area indicated by the red rectangle (right). Note that, in both monkeys, injections were made at four sites in each hemisphere (i.e., two different depths along each penetration track at two different rostro-caudal coordinates; see Methods). IC, internal capsule. OPT, optic tract. GPi, internal segment of globus pallidus. f Distribution of dual-infected MPFC neurons in MkA. Coronal sections cut through anteroposterior levels shown in inset (left). Anti-mCherry immunohistochemistry for cortical areas indicated by blue rectangles (middle). Locations of mCherry-positive neurons (right). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.