Fig. 4: AVP+ axons from the bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BNST) to the lateral septum (LS) are activated during sociability and social aggression. | Nature Communications

Fig. 4: AVP+ axons from the bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BNST) to the lateral septum (LS) are activated during sociability and social aggression.

From: Impaired vasopressin neuromodulation of the lateral septum leads to social behavior deficits in Shank3B+/- male mice

Fig. 4

a Avp-Cre mice injected bilaterally with AAV2/syn.FLEX.GcaMP6f.WPRE.SV40 in BNST with an optical ferrule in LS (created in BioRender. Leroy, F. (2025) https://BioRender.com/rj3w3d6). b Image of BNST and LS showing virally-labeled AVP+ cells (scale: 600 μm) and optical ferrule tip (scale bars: 400 μm). c Experimental timeline. d Schematic of the social interaction test (Created in BioRender. Leroy, F. (2025) https://BioRender.com/twqehea). e Frequencies of calcium transients before and during social interaction (4 mice. Paired t test: p = 0.4). f Amplitudes of the transients before and during social interaction (4 mice. Paired t test: p = 0.04). g Schematic of sociability test. h Peri-stimulus time histograms (PSTH) during interaction with each cup (6 mice) (Created in BioRender. Leroy, F. (2025) https://BioRender.com/yy20hso). i Areas under the curve of the PSTH during interaction with each cup (6 mice. Paired t test: p = 0.02). j Peak amplitudes of the PSTH during interaction with each cup (6 mice. Paired t test: p = 0.07). k Schematic of the resident-intruder test (Created in BioRender. Leroy, F. (2025) https://BioRender.com/vyq5lxl). l PSTH during social exploration and biting (6 mice). m Areas under the curve of the PSTH before and during biting (6 mice. Paired t test: p = 0.01). n Peak amplitudes of the PSTH before and during biting (6 mice. Paired t test: p = 0.0003). o Areas under the curve of the PSTH during social exploration and biting (6 mice. Paired t test: p = 0.08). p Peak amplitudes of the PSTH during social exploration and biting (6 mice. Paired t test: p = 0.02). q Performance of linear SVM decoders classifying social vs. non-social transients (6 mice. One-sided Wilcoxon signed-rank test: p = 0.02). For the entire figure, box plots show the median (central line) and the full range (minimum to maximum) across animals. PSTH plotted as mean ± s.e.m. Each point represents one mouse. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

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