Fig. 7: The aBLA→adBNST and lpBLA→ovBNST pathways synergistically encode the anxiety-relevant cues in the environment.

a Experimental procedures for real-time monitoring of the calcium signal changes in the aBLA^→adBNST axonal terminals when the mice explored in the elevated plus maze (EPM). b Schematic showing injection of AAV vectors encoding GCaMP6s into aBLA and implantation of the recorded optical cannula onto adBNST. c Left: Representative image showing the axonal terminals expressing GCaMP6s from aBLA PNs. The positioning of optical cannula was marked with the dashed lines. Right: GCaMP6s expression in aBLA PNs. This experiment was repeated 9 times with similar results. d Changes of average calcium transients in aBLA^→adBNST fibers when the mice moved from the closed arm to the open arm. n = 9 mice. e Heat maps showing the calcium fluorescence in the aBLA^→adBNST terminals of individual mice (2–7 trails for each) in (d). f, g Same as in (d–e) except that the calcium signals were measured when the mice transitioned from open to the closed arm. h summary of the changes of the average calcium signals in aBLA^→adBNST fibers when mice explored between the closed and open arms of EPM. ***p < 0.001, two tailed one sample t test. i–p Same as in (a–h), except that GCaMP6s was expressed in lpBLA PNs and the cannula was implanted onto ovBNST. n = 9 mice. ***p < 0.001, two tailed one sample t-test. All data shown as means ± s.e.m. Source data including statistics are provided as a Source Date file.