Fig. 6: Inactivating PL-aPVT neurons reduces food seeking during satiation, whereas inactivating PL-NAc neurons restores food seeking during threat states. | Nature Communications

Fig. 6: Inactivating PL-aPVT neurons reduces food seeking during satiation, whereas inactivating PL-NAc neurons restores food seeking during threat states.

From: Divergent prefrontal cortex circuits regulate cued food seeking under distinct metabolic or emotional states

Fig. 6

a Schematics of viral infusion of retrograde AAV expressing Cre recombinase to aPVT or NAc, and Cre-dependent hM4Di or mCherry control to PL. b Schematics of the shuttled food-seeking test. c Under food restriction, chemogenetic inhibition of PL-aPVT neurons (turquoise, n = 8) had no effect on food-seeking behaviour when compared to the viral control group (grey, n = 5). d When freely fed, chemogenetic inhibition of PL-aPVT neurons (turquoise, n = 8) further reduced lever presses, latency to presses, and percentage of rewarded trials, when compared to the viral control group (grey, n = 5). Under either e food restriction or f free fed conditions, chemogenetic inhibition of PL-NAc neurons (dark red, n = 8) had no effect on food-seeking behaviour, when compared to the viral control group (grey, n = 8). g Schematics of the threat test. h, i During the odour phase, chemogenetic inhibition of PL-aPVT neurons (turquoise, n = 8) had no effect on avoidance behaviour, when compared to the viral control group (grey, n = 5). i During the conflict phase, chemogenetic inhibition of PL-aPVT neurons (turquoise, n = 8) had no effect on the food-seeking or avoidance behaviour, when compared to the viral control group (grey, n = 5). j During the odour phase, chemogenetic inhibition of PL-NAc neurons (dark red, n = 8) during cat odour exposure reduced the percentage of time expressing avoidance behaviour and freezing behaviour, but had no effect on the percentage of time exhibiting approaching behaviour to odour mesh, when compared to viral control group (grey, n = 7). k During the conflict phase in cat odour test, chemogenetic inhibition of PL-NAc neurons (dark red, n = 8) during cat odour exposure reduced the percentage of time expressing avoidance behaviour, freezing behaviour and percentage of approaching behaviour to odour mesh, but only had a trend to increase lever presses rate, when compared to viral control group (grey, n = 7). c–f, h–k, Two-way repeated measures ANOVA followed by Sidak post hoc test. *p < 0.05. Box plot centre line, median; box limits, upper and lower quartiles; whiskers, 1.5× interquartile range; points, individual data. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

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