Fig. 8: mPFC neural representations of sucrose reward change with water restriction through the recruitment of neurons that were previously reward-unresponsive.
a Experimental timeline showing water restriction and imaging schedule. b mPFC neurons were tracked across three different imaging sessions using CellReg, a cell registration software50. The top row depicts the CNMFe-generated field of view (FOV) of all identified neurons from each imaging session of a representative animal across various water access conditions. The bottom row depicts individual neurons that were successfully tracked across all three imaging sessions from the same animal. Individual neurons are represented by different colors. Venn diagrams showing the number of tracked neurons across various water restriction conditions in male (c–e) and female (f–h) mice. Time locked responses (top row: average fluorescence trace, bottom row: heatmap showing individual trials) of example neurons that showed stable sucrose reward excite (i) and sucrose reward inhibit (j) responses across both full water access (left panel) and restricted water access imaging sessions (right panel). Pi charts depicting the previous identity of sucrose reward excite (k) and sucrose reward inhibit neurons (l) in the restricted water access condition in male (left panel) and female (right panel) mice. Proportion of tracked reward-unresponsive neurons that convert to sucrose reward excite (m) or sucrose reward inhibit (n) neurons in the subsequent imaging session in male (left panel) and female (right panel) mice. Proportion z test with correction for multiple comparisons (m, male — FWvFW2 (1) compared to FWvRW (2): p = 0.011, FWvFW2 (1) compared to FW2vRW (3): p = 0.003, FWvRW (2) compared to FW2vRW (3): p = 0.64; female — 1 to 2: p = 0.036, 1 to 3: p = 0.27, 2 to 3: p = 0.26; n, male — 1 to 2: p = 2.25*10−6, 1 to 3: p = 1.65*10−6, 2 to 3: p = 0.98; female — 1 to 2: p = 0.0054, 1 to 3: p = 6.37*10−8, 2 to 3: p = 0.009). *p < 0.05. Shaded error regions indicate ± SEM.
