Fig. 7: Drug-induced modulation of the food competition and simultaneous monitoring of the neural and social interaction changes.

a Neural activities of a green mouse (mPFC neurons) and a red mouse (LH neurons) in accordance with competition patterns during a representative food competition test with muscimol injection into the LH of the red mouse. The blue line above the heatmap indicates the time at the pump on (3 cycles; 5 s on and 55 s off over a 60 s period). b, c Real-time firing rate of mPFC neurons and LH neurons in accordance with behavioral events during a representative food competition trial b before and c after the muscimol injection. d Representative photographs taken before and after the muscimol injection, showing the absence of competition after the muscimol injection. e Overall winning history and competition occurrence before, during, and after the muscimol injection during four food competition tests conducted with three pairs of mice. f Mean firing rate of LH neurons (n = 19 where n is the number of LH neurons; before: p = 0.72911; after: p = 0.13197) and g mPFC neurons before and after providing the food pellet depending on the muscimol injection (n = 40 where n is the number of mPFC neurons; before: t(78) = 9.762, p = 0.000000003; after: t(78) = 3.485, p = 0.00081). h Mean firing rates of mPFC neurons during the competition depending on the muscimol injection (n = 40 where n is the number of mPFC neurons; t(78) = 6.691, p = 0.000000003). Data are presented as mean values ± SD with individual data points. Statistical analyses were performed by the two-tailed Mann–Whitney test in f and the two-tailed unpaired t-test in g and h. p < 0.05 was considered significant. ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. ns no statistical significance.