Fig. 6: VTA DAergic neurons that receive input from the DRN regulate the therapeutic effect of social reward against drug seeking. | Nature Communications

Fig. 6: VTA DAergic neurons that receive input from the DRN regulate the therapeutic effect of social reward against drug seeking.

From: Social reward outcompetes drug seeking dopaminergic ensembles to prevent relapse

Fig. 6: VTA DAergic neurons that receive input from the DRN regulate the therapeutic effect of social reward against drug seeking.The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

a Virus injection strategy and representative hM3Dq-EGFP expression (scale bar: 500 µm; repeated 4 times independently with similar results). b Experimental scheme. c CNO increased firing of DRN-input DAergic neurons (n = 11 neurons, unpaired two-tailed t test: t(20) = 9.373, p < 0.001). d Number of nose-pokes during cocaine self-administration training (n = 8 male rats, three-way ANOVA, 10 consecutive days measurements from the same animal: F(9,6) = 0.843, p = 0.607; see Supplementary Table 8A). e Number of nose-pokes during extinction (n = 8 male rats, three-way ANOVA, 14 consecutive days measurements from the same animal: F(13,2) = 6.508, p = 0.141; see Supplementary Table 8B). f Number of nose-pokes during relapse test (n = 8 male rats, two-way ANOVA: F(1,14) = 8.673, p = 0.011; see Supplementary Table 8C). g Virus injection strategy and representative hM4Di-EGFP expression (scale bar: 500 µm; repeated 4 times independently with similar results). h Experimental scheme. i CNO decreased firing of DRN-input DAergic neurons (n = 10 neurons, unpaired two-tailed t test: t(18) = 6.991, p < 0.001). j Number of nose-pokes during cocaine self-administration training (n = 8 male rats, three-way ANOVA, 10 consecutive days measurements from the same animal: F(9,6) = 1.439, p = 0.339; see Supplementary Table 8D). k Number of nose-pokes during extinction (n = 8 male rats, three-way ANOVA, 14 consecutive days measurements from the same animal: F(13,2) = 1.143, p = 0.560; see Supplementary Table 8E). l Number of nose-pokes during relapse test (n = 8 male rats, two-way ANOVA: F(1,14) = 15.180, p = 0.002; see Supplementary Table 8F). All the data are presented as mean ± SEM. 95% confidence interval was used for all statistical analyses in this figure. a, b, g, h: Created in BioRender. Xiaoxing, L. (2026) https://BioRender.com/hqs0eg6. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

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