Extended Data Fig. 2: Dopamine responses to a monster.
From: Dopamine in the tail of the striatum facilitates avoidance in threat–reward conflicts
(a) Location of optic fiber tips (marked with green circles) used to collect dopamine sensor signals in TS. (b) TS dopamine activity in the control session with no monster. Top, mean ± SEM. (c) Left, TS dopamine and DLS dopamine responses to water in control sessions before monster experiences and dopamine responses to monster movement in monster session Day 1-3Mean ± SEM. Right, average dopamine responses (0-1 s) to water (top) and monster movement (bottom). Dopamine sensor signals in DLS showed significant activation with water (p = 8.0 × 10−3, two-sided t-test) but not in TS (p = 0.58, two-sided t-test) and the water responses were significantly higher in DLS than in TS (p = 6.2 × 10−7, two-sided t-test). Dopamine sensor signals showed significant activation at monster movement in TS (p = 3.0 × 10−5, two-sided t-test) but not in DLS (p = 0.56, two-sided t-test), and the monster responses were significantly higher in TS than in DLS (p = 0.021, two-sided t-test). Center of box plot shows median; edges are 25th and 75th percentiles; and whiskers are the most extreme data points. N = 3 and n = 19 animals for DLS and TS. (d) Contribution of each component in the kernel regression models of TS dopamine (top) and DLS dopamine (bottom) (see Materials and Methods). Center of box plot shows median; edges are 25th and 75th percentiles; and whiskers are the most extreme data points. (e) The average duration between entry to the monster territory and arena exit (‘escape duration’) was significantly shorter in the presence of either small or big monster than in control sessions (p = 3.4 × 10−3, small; p = 0.032, big, two-sided paired t-test, n = 6 animals each). (f) Average TS dopamine responses 0.1–1.1 s after monster were positively correlated with individual variability of predictive avoidance rate and reactive avoidance rate (average of 10 monster sessions, predictive avoidance, R = 0.73, p = 3.6 × 10−3; reactive avoidance, R = 0.53, p = 1.9 × 10−2, Pearson’s correlation coefficient). (g) Average TS dopamine responses 0-1 s before monster were not correlated with individual variability of avoidance rate (average of 10 monster sessions, total avoidance, R = 0.41, p = 0.082; predictive avoidance, R=na, p=na; reactive avoidance, R = 0.30, p = 0.21, Pearson’s correlation coefficient). Similar dopamine responses before monster movement in avoidance and reward acquisitions trials (p = 0.95, two-sided paired t-test). *P < 0.05.
