Extended Data Fig. 15: SOROXT cells in female mice are activated by noxious stimuli.
From: A dedicated hypothalamic oxytocin circuit controls aversive social learning
a. Schematics of virus injection and a representative histological image for fiber photometry recording of SOROXT cells in female mice. The dashed line marks SOR. Scale bar: 200 µm. Brain illustration is based on a reference atlas from https://atlas.brain-map.org/. b. Experimental timeline. c-d. Representative Z-scored GCaMP6f traces of SOROXT cells from an animal that encountered a naïve C57BL/6 female intruder (c) or a SW lactating female mouse in the SW cage (d). c2 and d2 show enlarged views of boxed areas in c1 and d1, respectively. e. PETH of Z-scored GCaMP6f signal aligned to C57 female intruder introduction. As all lactating mothers attacked the test mouse within 10 s, the introduction response cannot be isolated. f. The peak GCaMP6f response within the first 10 s after C57 intruder introduction. g-h. PETHs of Z-scored GCaMP6f signals aligned to close investigation (CI) of C57BL/6 female intruders (g), investigating and being defeated by SW mothers (h). i. Average Z-scored ΔF/F of SOROXT cells during various social behaviors. j. Heatmaps showing the body center location of a recording mouse in MSI tests before and after defeat. E: empty; Cv: familiar C57BL/6 virgin female; Sv: unfamiliar virgin SW female; and Sm: SW mother. k. Time spent around each cup during MSI tests before and after defeat. l. Representative Z-scored GCaMP6f traces from a female recording mouse during pre-defeat (l1) and post-defeat (l2) MSI tests. Shades represent investigation periods of different constrained stimulus animals. Periods investigating the empty cup are not marked. m. PETHs of Z-scored GCaMP6f signals aligned to the onset of investigation of different constrained stimuli. Gray: pre-defeat; Color: post-defeat. n. Average Z-scored ΔF/F of SOROXT cells during the investigation of various constrained stimuli in the pre-defeat and post-defeat MSI tests. o. Schematics of head-fixed fiber photometry recording of SOROXT cells and presented stimuli. p. Representative raw GCaMP6f trace of SOROXT cells during delivery of aggressor urine on a Q-tip, gentle touch, back pinch, back poke, and tail pinch. q. PETHs of Z-scored GCaMP6f signals aligned to the onset of aggressor urine presentation (q1), gentle touch (q2), back pinch (q3), back poke (q4), and tail pinch (q5). Gray and black dashed lines indicate the onset and average duration of stimulus delivery, respectively. r. Average Z-scored ΔF/F during various stimulus delivery. Plots with shades and error bars represent mean±s.e.m. Circles and lines represent individual animals. Numbers on the plots indicate the number of animals. Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s multiple comparisons test (i); Two-way repeated measure ANOVA with Sidak’s multiple comparisons test (k, n); and One-way repeated measure ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test (r). All statistical tests are two-tailed. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 and ****p < 0.0001. See Supplementary Table 1 for detailed statistics.
