Fig. 3: PVH^CCK neurons projected to ACC^Glu neurons.

a Schematic of the anterograde virus tracing strategy (left) and typical images of virus injection sites within the PVH and viral expression in the ACC (right). Scale bar:20 µm. b Schematic of virus injection (left) and representative images showing RV-DsRed expression in the PVH (right). Scale bar:20 µm. c Schematic of the retrograde virus tracing strategy. d Typical images of virus injection sites within the ACC and viral expression in other brain regions. Scale bar:20 µm. e Schematic of viral injection and the real-time optical fiber photometry assay (top) and representative images showing EGFP and mCherry expression in the ACC and PVH (bottom). Scale bar:20 µm. f Heatmaps and average Ca²⁺ transient signals of ACC^Glu neurons in hM4Di+CNO and hM4Di+NS mice receiving CRD stimulation. g Area under the curve of Ca²⁺ activity of ACC^Glu neurons in hM4Di+CNO and hM4Di+NS mice receiving CRD stimulation (n = 7 mice/group, p = 0.0337). h Heatmaps and average Ca²⁺ transient signals of ACC^Glu neurons in hM3Dq+CNO and hM3Dq+NS mice receiving CRD stimulation. i Area under the curve of Ca²⁺ activity of ACC^Glu neurons in hM3Dq+CNO and hM3Dq+NS mice receiving CRD stimulation (n = 7 mice/group, p = 0.0413). All the data are presented as the means ± SEMs. Two-sided student’s t test (g, i). *p < 0.05.