Fig. 1: Neural pathway targets and optogenetic self-stimulation behaviour task. | Communications Biology

Fig. 1: Neural pathway targets and optogenetic self-stimulation behaviour task.

From: A quadruple dissociation of reward-related behaviour in mice across excitatory inputs to the nucleus accumbens shell

Fig. 1

a Viral vector injections and optic fiber implants targeted specific excitatory inputs to the NAcSh. b Representative images (4x) from coronal slices (40 µm) showing viral localization and spread. c Representative images of input-specific ChR2+ terminal regions in NAcSh (10x, insets at 20x). The optical fiber (of) and anterior commissure (ac) are depicted with straight and rounded dashed lines, respectively. d Experimental timeline. Each session was 30 min long with one session per day. e Optogenetic stimulation was inactive during baseline, active in one zone during acquisition, and active in a different zone during reversal (30 Hz, 5 ms pulse width, 5 s max stimulation per bout). f Illustration of reward-related decisions during the task. A mouse could exit and re-enter the active zone to bypass a 15 s “timeout” period, wait in the active zone during the timeout for additional stimuli, or any combination of these two options.

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