Supplementary Figure 9: Manipulations of insular cortex reverse SAP test behavior.
From: Insular cortex mediates approach and avoidance responses to social affective stimuli
From visual inspection of the results of the optogenetic and pharmacology experiments it appeared that manipulating the insular cortex not only prevented the expression of preference behavior in the SAP test, but that it might actually switch preference in the opposite direction. To test this possibility, % time interacting with the stressed conspecific scores were pooled from all of the mechanistic experiments (halorhodopsin, OTRa, PKC inhibitor, n = 26 for PN30, n = 25 for PN50) and we conducted one-sample t-tests (2-tailed) comparing each condition to 50% (no preference). Indeed, disrupting insular function reversed SAP behavior. In PN30 rats, the mean (+SEM) % time interacting with the stressed conspecific switched away from the stressed juvenile, t(25) = 3.35, **p = 0.003 and in PN 50 rats it switched toward interacting with the stressed adult, t(24) = 2.30, *p = 0.013.
