Extended Data Fig. 10: Nonselective effects of vmPFC and NAc inhibition on competitive behaviour.
From: Frontal neurons driving competitive behaviour and ecology of social groups
a, Schematic illustrating reversable musicmol inactivation in either the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) or the nucleus accumbens (NAc; Methods). b, Representative histological images displaying the muscimol injection sites for the vmPFC (Left) and NAc (Right). c, Animals injected with muscimol did not display a change in absolute social rank in the tube test compared to saline for either the vmPFC (Left, n=6 mice, Z=1, p=0.32, Signed-rank) or the NAc (Right, n=6 mice, Z=-1, p=0.32, Signed-rank). Error bars denote mean±95%CI. d, Group competition. Left, animals injected with muscimol in the vmPFC did not display a difference in the competitive order to reaching reward when compared to saline (p>0.2; Paired t-tests). Right, animals injected with muscimol in the NAc displayed a decrease in the competitive order to reaching reward when compared to saline, but this effect was observed both when the animals’ relative rank was either higher (*t(5)=2.51, p=0.027; Paired t-test) or lower (**t(5)=3.12, p=0.013; Paired t-test) than their competitors. Error bars denote mean ± s.e.m. e, Group competition. Left, animals injected with muscimol in the vmPFC did not display a difference in reaching reward first or last when compared to saline (>0.05; Paired t-tests). Right, animals injected with muscimol in the NAc displayed a decrease in likelihood of reaching reward first when compared to saline, but this effect was observed both when the animals’ relative rank was either higher t(5)=-2.17, p=0.041; Paired t-test) or lower (**t(5)=-2.8, p=0.019; Paired t-test) than their competitors. Error bars denote mean ± s.e.m. f, Foraging with totems. Left, animals injected with muscimol in the vmPFC did not display a difference in latency to reaching the reward zone (t(5)=-0.85, p=0.42; Paired t-test). Animals injected with muscimol in the NAc displayed an increase in latency (*t(5)=0.2.08, p=0.046; Paired t-test). Right, animals injected with muscimol in the vmPFC did not display a difference in the average path error to the reward zone (t(5)=0.17, p=0.87; Paired t-test). Animals injected with muscimol in the NAc also did not display a difference in the average path error to the reward zone NAc (t(5)=0.44, p=0.34; Paired t-test) together suggesting that NAc inactivation decreased the animals’ effort across both social and non-social conditions without affecting their overall motoric ability20. Error bars denote mean ± s.e.m. For panels c–f, n=6 mice for vmPFC group and n=6 mice for NAc group.
