Fig. 1: Stimulating AVPR1A^CeA neurons promotes anxiety-related behaviors in both sexes.

a Neurons expressing the Avpr1a-Cre::tdTomato lineage trace are localized to the CeA in coronal sections of the amygdala from bregma −1.22 to −1.82. b No sex difference in Avpr1a-Cre::tdTomato lineage traced neurons in the amygdala (P = 0.3802, n = 7 males, n = 10 females). c Experimental design to assess the effect of chemogenetic activation of AVPR1A^CeA neurons in group-housed mice on anxiety-related behaviors. d Schematic of viral injection into the CeA of Avpr1a-Cre mice. e Representative expression of the viral mCherry reporter in the CeA (n = 26). f, g Chemogenetic activation of AVPR1A^CeA neurons increased marble burying (f) and reduced time spent in the open arms of the EPM (g) (marble burying: group P = < 0.0001, sex P = 0.8657, interaction group*sex P = 0.6425; EPM: group P = < 0.0001, sex P = 0.3904, interaction group*sex P = 0.6247, n = 6 control females, n = 7 Gq females, n = 9 control males, n = 8 Gq males). An unpaired two-tailed t-test was used in (b). Two-way ANOVA (with RM for marble burying) and Tukey’s multiple comparisons were used in (f, g). Different letters denote significant differences. n denotes the number of mice in each group. Scale bars represent 100 μm. Schematic in (c) was generated with BioRender icons⁴⁹.