Extended Data Fig. 6: PIL neurons do not exhibit sustained increases in firing after pup calls in vivo.
From: Neural circuitry for maternal oxytocin release induced by infant cries
a, Experimental set-up showing in vivo cell-attached recordings in PIL of awake wild-type dams while playing pup calls from an ultrasound speaker. PIL, posterior intralaminar nucleus of the thalamus. b, Location (depth from pia) and firing rate of PIL neurons (n = 9 neurons; N = 4 dams). c–e, PIL neurons did not modulate their firing rate following playback of a set of pup calls (15 pup calls, 1 s gap in between calls). c, Sample traces from a cell-attached recording of one PIL neuron showing its baseline firing rate immediately preceding (1, ‘Pre’) and at 90 s after the onset of pup calls playback (2, ‘Post’). Firing rates during baseline and after pup calls were calculated over 1–2 min. d, Timeline of responses of PIL neurons. e, PIL neurons (n = 9) did not exhibit persistent increases in baseline firing following pup calls, as calculated between 80–160 s after onset of pup-call playback (e, n = 9 neurons, N = 4 dams, p = 0.77, one-sample two-tailed Student’s t-test). Data reported as mean ± s.e.m.; ns, not significant.
