Fig. 1: Suppression of odor-attractive behavior by local injection of an OxR1 antagonist into the amOT.

a Protocol for odor-sugar association training and behavioral analysis following OxR1 antagonist injection. Food-restricted mice received association training with an odor (eugenol) and sugar for 4 days (training: days 1–4). The mice underwent injection of an OxR1 antagonist (SB334867) or vehicle in the bilateral amOT and were examined for odor-guided behavior for 3 days (test: days 1–3). b, c Placement of drug cannulae in the amOT. b Coronal section of the OT. Asterisk, position of the cannula tip. Scale bar, 1 mm. c Schematic of cannula placement (red dots; n = 7 representative mice). d, e Odor-guided behavior of mice during test days 1–3. d Digging behavior at the odor location. e Digging behavior outside the odor location. Digging time within four 2 min-trials of vehicle-injected mice (white columns) and antagonist-injected mice (black columns). f, g Odor-guided behavior during test on days 1–3, in mice that received vehicle/antagonist injection only on day 1. f Digging behavior at the odor location. g Digging behavior outside the odor location. Digging time within four 2 min-trials of vehicle-injected mice (white columns) and antagonist-injected mice (black columns). In d–g average ± SD are shown. Each dot represents one mouse (n = 8 mice for both groups in d, e; n = 5 mice for both groups in f, g). ns not significant; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 (unpaired t-test).