Fig. 2: NPY^DRN/vlPAG neurons regulate the hypophagic response to acute novelty stress.

a Viral injection and representative current clamp recording of a NPY^hM4Di neuron with the bath of 50 μM clozapine N-oxide (CNO). b Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) images showing colocalization of hM4Di (green) and Npy (red) mRNA. Arrows indicate hM4Di⁺Npy⁺ neurons. In 388 hM4Di⁺ neurons, 367 of them co-express Npy. The experiment was repeated 2 times with similar results. 4-h (c) and 24-h (d) food intake of NPY^hM4Di mice under acute novelty stress. In (c) Two-way ANOVA with post-hoc Šídák’s multiple comparisons test. In (d) Two-sided Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test. e Viral injection and representative current clamp recording of a NPY^hM3Dq neuron with the bath of 10 μM CNO. f FISH images showing colocalization of hM3Dq (red) and Npy (green) mRNA. Arrows indicate hM3Dq⁺Npy⁺ neurons. In 313 hM3Dq⁺ neurons, 265 of them co-express Npy. The experiment was repeated 2 times with similar results. 4-h (g) and 24-h (h) food intake of NPY^hM3Dq mice under acute novelty stress. In (g) Two-way ANOVA with post-hoc Šídák’s multiple comparisons test. In (h) Two-sided paired Student’s t test. 4-h (i) and 24-h (j) food intake of NPY^mCherry mice under acute novelty stress. In (i) Two-way ANOVA with post-hoc Šídák’s multiple comparisons test. In (j) Two-sided paired Student’s t test. Data are shown as mean ± SEM. ‘n’ refers to mice number. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.