Fig. 3: Silencing AVP+ neurons from the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) impairs sociability and social aggression.

a Avp-Cre mice and WT littermates injected bilaterally with AAV2/8 hSyn.DIO.hM4D(Gi)-mCherry in the BNST (bed nucleus of stria terminalis) (Created in BioRender. Leroy, F. (2025) https://BioRender.com/zzherf1). b Viral expression in the BNST of Avp-Cre mouse (scale bar: 300 μm). c Experimental timeline. d Schematic of the sociability test (Created in BioRender. Leroy, F. (2025) https://biorender.com/8v51vnv). e Interaction times with empty or social cup in CNO condition (14/11 mice. Paired t test WT + CNO group: p = 0.005; Paired t test Cre + CNO group: p = 0.02). f Discrimination indexes for social preference in CNO condition (14/11 mice. Unpaired t test: p < 0.0001). g Interaction times with social and empty cups in saline condition (14/11 mice. Paired t test, WT + saline: p = 0.01; Paired t test, Cre + saline: p = 0.01). h Discrimination indexes for social preference in saline condition (14/11 mice. Unpaired t test: p = 0.4). i Schematic of the resident-intruder test (Created in BioRender. Leroy, F. (2025) https://BioRender.com/in0mntf). j Proportions of mice exhibiting only social exploration, social dominance without aggression, or aggression in CNO and saline conditions (13/11 mice. Chi-square test: χ²(2) = 7.39, p = 0.02). k Attack durations in CNO condition (13/11 mice. Unpaired t test: p = 0.03). l Attack durations in saline condition (13/11 mice. Unpaired t test: p = 0.83). m Attack durations between saline and CNO conditions (13/11 mice. Paired t test WT group: p = 0.91; Paired t test Cre: p = 0.02). For the entire figure, bar graphs represent mean ± s.e.m. Each point is one mouse. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, **** p < 0.0001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.