Fig. 1: ABS pairing enhances SC activity and prevents return of fear.
From: Neural circuits underlying a psychotherapeutic regimen for fear disorders
a, Experimental procedure; see Methods. Vis. stim., visual stimulation. b, Fear extinction with visual stimulation (CS, n = 9; CL + CS, n = 7; FL + CS, n = 7; ABS + CS unpaired, n = 7; ABS + CS, n = 10 mice). FC, fear conditioning. Mixed-design ANOVA for extinction: F4,35 = 12.35, P = 2.31 × 10−6 for group. One-way ANOVA during recall: F4,35 = 10.59, P = 9.96 × 10−6. c, Effects of ABS pairing on fear relapse (CS, n = 9; ABS + CS, n = 10 mice). SR, spontaneous recovery. Two-way ANOVA: F1,41 = 90.203, P = 6.516 × 10−12 for group. Asterisks above bars indicate significant fear relapse. d, Single-unit recording from the SC during fear extinction. PAG, periaqueductal grey. e, Heat map and classified SC responses (1-s bins; χ2(2) = 17.858, P = 0.0001325). f, g, Averaged positive (f) and negative (g) responses of SC neurons (1-s bins). Mann–Whitney U-test, two-sided: P = 3.492 × 10−5 for positive responses (CS, n = 33; ABS + CS, n = 62 cells), P = 0.3599 for negative responses (CS, n = 10; ABS + CS, n = 8 cells). h, i, Pearson’s correlation analyses of SC positive (h; CS, n = 9; ABS + CS, n = 8 mice) or negative (i; CS, n = 5; ABS + CS, n = 5 mice) responses during fear extinction with averaged freezing during spontaneous recovery and renewal. Mean ± s.e.m.; post hoc multiple comparison with Bonferroni correction. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. See Supplementary Table 1 for statistical details.
