Fig. 7: Neural representations of antidepressant action of VTA-IPN PENK neurons. | Nature Communications

Fig. 7: Neural representations of antidepressant action of VTA-IPN PENK neurons.

From: A cell-type-specific circuit of somatostatin neurons in the habenula encodes antidepressant action in male mice

Fig. 7

a, b Schematic diagram (a) and representative images (b, n = 9 mice) showing the expression of ChR2-GFP in SST neurons in the HBX, the projections of SSTChR2GFP and the expression of NpHR3-tdT in PENK neurons (PENKNpHR3tdT) in the IPN. c Action potential firings isolated from SST and PENK neurons are modulated by optogenetic controls of SSTChR2GFP. d, e Peri-event raster histograms for representative neurons showing phasic excitation associated with both light stimulation of SST neurons and lick events (d, example cell 1, 81 out of 83 cells) or different phasic responses with light pulses versus lick events (e, example cell 2, 2 out of 83 cells). f, g Raster plots (f) of single units in response to licks (pink) in an example neuron from control and CMS mice. Bar plots (g) of firing frequency of the PENK neurons during 30 min of the recording epoch, with and without optogenetic activation (blue: light on) of SST neurons, data are presented as mean ± SEM (n = 9 mice per group, 91 PENK neurons were recorded from 9 control mice, ranging from 7 to 15, 99 PENK neurons were recorded from 9 CMS mice, ranging from 8 to 13, ns, no significant difference, ***p = 4.86 × 10−5, two-way repeated measures ANOVA). h, i Peri-event raster histograms for representative PENK neurons from CMS mice (h) and control mice (i), showing different phasic responses with lick events during light off and on epochs. j Single-unit firings from PENK neurons correlate to antidepressant action. Plots showing the percentage of the numbers of neurons with action potential firings in response to lick events during light-off and light-on epochs, in individual control (blue) and CMS (pink) mice. Pearson’s r (2-tailed), CMS p = 5.91 × 10−4 and Control p = 1.05 × 10−3 for Light off, CMS p = 1.44 × 10−4 and Control p = 1.37 × 10−2 for Light on. Data are presented as mean ± SEM (n = 9 mice per group). TERM: triple enzymatic recombination mutant. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

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