Fig. 6: Photoactivation of CN^GABA → ZI circuit reduces anxiety and induces reward.

a Schematic of viral injection in the CN and optogenetic stimulation of bilateral CN^GABA → ZI pathway in vGat-Cre mice. b Examples of viral expression in the CN and axonal tracts in the ZI. An optic fiber was positioned above ZI to stimulate CN^GABA axons. Scales: 200 μm. c Representative activity traces of control and oChIEF-expressing vGat-Cre mice in EPM with photostimulation. d Time spent in open arm, entries to open arm, and distance in EPM. n = 7 mice per group. One-sided unpaired t-test. ^**p < 0.01. ^***p < 0.001. Data: mean ± SEM. e Representative locomotor traces of tdTomato- or oChIEF-expressing vGat-Cre mice in the baseline (left) and the conditions of laser-on/off (right). f Percentages of time spent during photostimulation. Control, n = 7 mice per group. oChIEF, n = 8 mice per group. One-sided unpaired t-test. ^***p < 0.001. Data: mean ± SEM. g Locomotor traces of tdTomato- and oChIEF-expressing vGat-Cre mice in CPP. h Percentages of time spent in the less preferred chamber. Control, n = 6 mice per group. oChIEF, n = 7 mice per group. Two-sided paired t-test. ^**p < 0.01. Data: mean ± SEM. i Experimental design for artificially inhibiting anxiety in vGat-Cre;Ai14 mice. j Entries to open arm and time spent in open arm (%) in EPM. n = 7 mice per group. One-way ANOVA test. ^*p < 0.05. Data: mean ± SEM. k Schematic of whole-cell recording in _GLUZI neurons with photo stimulation. l Representative sIPSCs recorded from oChIEF-expressing and oChIEF-expressing+stimulation neurons in vGat-Cre;Ai14 mice. oChIEF, n = 15. oChIEF+stim, n = 6. One-sided unpaired t-test. ^**p < 0.01. Data: mean ± SEM. m Representative population spikes evoked by current injection in tdTomato- and oChIEF-expressing neurons. oChIEF, n = 15. oChIEF + stim, n = 6. One-sided unpaired t-test. ^*p < 0.05. Data: mean ± SEM. See Supplementary Table 5 for all statistics for this figure. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.