Fig. 6: D1 and D2 neurons promote avoidance and overcoming a potential threat.
From: Dopamine in the tail of the striatum facilitates avoidance in threat–reward conflicts
a, AAV-CAG-flex-dtA was bilaterally injected into TS in Tac1-cre/Ai14 (top) or Adora2A-cre/Ai14 (bottom) mice to ablate D1 or D2 neurons, respectively. tdTomato is shown in white. Scale bars, 1 mm. b, The returning points that each animal reached in each trial. c, The avoidance rate was lower in mice with D1 ablation in the more posterior striatum (R = 0.69, P = 2.0 × 10−3, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, n = 17 animals). d, The avoidance rate in D1 or D2 neuron ablation mice (mean ± s.e.m.). The avoidance rates in the monster sessions were significantly lower in D1 ablation mice and higher in D2 ablation mice than control mice across sessions (second left, group × phase interaction, P = 2.2 × 10−4, F(2,20) = 10.19, D1; P = 0.011, F(2,44) = 5.65, D2, two-way repeated measures ANOVA; P = 5.1 × 10−5, day 1, P = 9.9 × 10−3, day 2, P = 0.043, day 3, D1; P = 0.62, day 1, P = 0.021, day 2, P = 6.4 × 10−3, day 3, D2, two-sided t-test) and on average (second right, P = 6.1 × 10−4, n = 6 animals each, D1; P = 0.048, n = 12 animals each, D2, control versus ablation mice, two-sided t-test; P = 1.4 × 10−4, D1 control mice (top black); P = 0.056, D1 ablation mice (top orange); P = 5.9 × 10−4, D2 control mice (bottom black); P = 3.3 × 10−6, D2 ablation mice (bottom green), control versus monster sessions, two-sided paired t-test). The avoidance rate gradually decreased in the control but not in D1 or D2 ablation mice (P = 0.013, D1 control; P = 0.72, D1 ablation, n = 6 animals each; P = 6.4 × 10−4, D2 control; P = 0.61, D2 ablation, n = 12 animals each, two-sided t-test; P = 0.038, D1 control versus ablation; P = 4.4 × 10−4, D2 control versus ablation, two-sided paired t-test). The monster icons indicate monster sessions and the circle icons indicate no monster sessions. *P < 0.05.
