Fig. 2: vGlut2BF neuron responses increase after odor association with positive or negative stimuli.
A Experimental timeline for olfactory conditioning. Pentanol (5%) was paired with high-fat diet (HFD), Hexanol (5%) with foot shock (FS), and Octanol was unpaired. B Behavioral preference/avoidance in GRIN lens–implanted mice. Time spent with HFD-associated odor (Pentanol) and the foot-shock-associated odor (Hexanol), compared to time spent with mineral oil (odorless control). The associated odor is shown in red, and the odorless control is shown in gray. n = 12 animals; paired two-tailed Student’s t-test: Pentanol, p = 0.0005; Hexanol, p < 0.0001. C Heatmaps of vGlut2BF neuronal responses to Pentanol (HFD), Hexanol (FS), and Octanol before and after association. For each odor, the left panel shows pre-association responses, and the right shows post-association responses. Black vertical lines indicate odor onset and offset. D Population-average traces of all recorded neurons before (black) and after (red) association for each odor. Black vertical lines indicate odor onset and offset. E Quantification of mean odor-evoked responses across neurons before (gray) and after (red) association. n = 257 neurons from 12 animals; paired two-tailed Student’s t-test: Pentanol, p < 0.0001; Hexanol, p < 0.0001; Octanol, p = 0.2483. Classification of neuronal responses to Pentanol (F) and Hexanol (G) before and after association. Neuronal responses after association were grouped based on their pre-association state (excited (blue), inhibited (green), or non-responsive (gray)). Percentages indicate the distribution of response types before association. H Proportion of excitatory, inhibitory, and non-responsive neurons after association for Pentanol and Hexanol. Pentanol: excited (47.08%), inhibited (8.56%), no response (44.36%). Hexanol: excited (44.36%), inhibited (14.40%), no response (41.25%). I Hexanol-evoked responses grouped by each neuron’s response category to Pentanol after association. Percentages indicate the distribution of excited, inhibited, and non-responsive for Pentanol. J Mean z-scored responses during the 2-s odor period for neurons excited (top) or inhibited (bottom) by both HFD- and FS-associated odors. Paired two-tailed Student’s t-test: excited neurons (n = 88 neurons), p = 0.0046; inhibited neurons (n = 15 neurons), p = 0.1067. Data are presented as mean ± s.e.m. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001. Illustrations in (A) were Created in BioRender. Chin, P. (2025) https://BioRender.com/74qwul9. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
