Fig. 4: Cholinergic signaling influences the ACx neural activity to modulate tone-responsive neurons during the encoding stage. | Translational Psychiatry

Fig. 4: Cholinergic signaling influences the ACx neural activity to modulate tone-responsive neurons during the encoding stage.

From: ACx-projecting cholinergic neurons in the NB influence the BLA ensembles to modulate the discrimination of auditory fear memory

Fig. 4

A Left: schematic of virus injection. In ChAT-cre mice, AAV9-DIO-NpHR3.0-mCherry was infused into the NB. The viruses AAV9-c-fos-rtTA and AAV9-TRE-EGFP were infused into the ACx. Right: representative confocal images of in the ACx. B Behavioral design. C–F Representative confocal images (C and D) and the statistical numbers (E and F) of EGFP+, c-fos+, and EGFP+c-fos+ immunofluorescent cells in the ACx during 1 kHz retrieval stage (C, E) or 10 kHz retrieval stage (D, F) in mice under inhibition of ACx-projecting cholinergic neurons of NB at the encoding stage. (Blue, DAPI; green, the activated ACx cells at test 1 in day 2 that were marked by EGFP; red: the activated ACx neurons marked by c-fos in mice that are given 1 kHz tone (C) or 10 kHz tone (D) at day 3. Scale bar: 50 μm. In E and F, the NpHR3.0 and mCherry groups displayed similar percentages of EGFP+ and c-fos+ cells among DAPI+ cells (n = 9 images from three mice). In E, the NpHR3.0 group displayed a higher percentage of EGFP+c-fos+/EGFP+ cells than mCherry group during the 1 kHz retrieval test (n = 9 images from three mice). In F, the NpHR3.0 group displayed a lower percentage of EGFP+c-fos+/EGFP+ cells than mCherry group during the 10 kHz retrieval test (n = 9 images from three mice). Statistical tests: E and F, unpaired two-tailed t-test. ns not significant; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. Data are presented as mean ± SEM.

Back to article page