Fig. 3: pBLA inputs activation drives strong feedforward inhibition from ovBNST to adBNST.

a Representative traces showing oEPSCs and oIPSCs in adBNST neurons upon optogenetic activation of the entire aBLA (left) or pBLA (right) inputs with blue light pulses of increasing intensity. b, c Summary of the oEPSCs and oIPSCs amplitudes against the increasing intensity of light stimuli delivered to aBLA (b) and pBLA (c) inputs. n = 15 neurons/5 mice for both groups. *p < 0.05, two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons test. d, e Distribution of the oEPSCs and oIPSCs amplitudes in each recorded adBNST cells when the light stimuli were delivered to aBLA (d) and pBLA (e) inputs at an intensity of 100 µW/mm². f Summary of the I/E ratio in (d and e). n = 15 neurons/5 mice for both groups. ***p < 0.001, two tailed unpaired Student’s t-test. g Schematic diagrams showing recording of the oIPSCs in adBNST neurons or their firings upon selective activation of the pBLA terminals in either ovBNST or adBNST with focalized light stimuli. Note that the stimuli were sequentially delivered to either of the two subregions at a randomized order. h Representative traces showing oIPSCs recorded from one identical adBNST neuron when the light stimuli were delivered to adBNST (left) and ovBNST (right). i Summary of the oIPSCs amplitudes in adBNST neurons as shown in (h). n = 14 neurons/4 mice. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons test. j Representative traces showing the firing of one identical adBNST cell in response to the light activation of pBLA terminals in adBNST (left) and ovBNST (right). k Summary of the spike frequency of adBNST neurons before, during and after selective activation of pBLA inputs in either the adBNST or ovBNST as shown in (j). n = 17 neurons/5 mice; **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons test. All data shown as means ± s.e.m. Source data including statistics are provided as a Source Date file.