Fig. 4: Causation OT maps of “liking” enhancement by muscimol.

A Localization of hedonic function map shows how muscimol microinjections altered ‘liking’ reactions to intraoral sucrose infusions at each individual OT site. Each symbol indicates the putative cannula tip location for an individual rat plotted on a coronal brain atlas [30]. Symbol color represents within-subject behavioral changes in hedonic reactions induced by muscimol, expressed as percent change from vehicle ACSF microinjection control levels in the same rat (‘liking’ enhancement: red-yellow; ‘liking’ suppression: blue). B Muscimol microinjections differentially alter hedonic ‘liking’ reactions depending on the anatomical subregion of the OT. Muscimol microinjections in the OTam enhanced hedonic ‘liking’ reactions, whereas those in the OTal produced no significant change. C Localization of aversive function map shows how muscimol microinjections altered ‘disgust’ reactions to intraoral sucrose infusions at each individual OT site. Each symbol indicates the putative cannula tip location for an individual rat plotted on a coronal brain atlas [30]. Symbol color represents within-subject behavioral changes in hedonic reactions induced by muscimol, expressed as percent change from vehicle ACSF microinjection control levels in the same rat (‘disgust’ enhancement: magenta; ‘disgust’ suppression: green). D Muscimol microinjections did not significantly alter aversive ‘disgust’ reactions in either the OTam or OTal subregion. n = 13 rats for (A, B); n = 12 rats for (C, D). Data are shown as mean ± SEM. ***p < 0.0001 by Weltch’s t test.