Midbrain projection to the basolateral amygdala encodes anxiety-like but not depression-like behaviors

VTA (Ventral tegmental area) MBA:749 projects to ACB (Nucleus accumbens) MBA:56 · Mouse

Retrograde AAV encoding tdTomato (AAVrg-CAG-tdTomato in wild-type mice, AAVrg-FLEX-tdTomato in TH-BAC-Cre mice) injected into the nucleus accumbens retrogradely labelled VTA neurons, including dopaminergic ones. When combined with a differently coloured retrograde tracer in the BLA, only about 2.7% of 2100 labelled VTA neurons carried both labels, indicating largely segregated VTA→NAc and VTA→BLA populations.

Supplementary Fig. 3a, b; Results (VTA → BLA dopamine neuron hypoactivity section)

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VTA (Ventral tegmental area) MBA:749 projects to BLA (Basolateral amygdalar nucleus) MBA:295 · Mouse

Green retrobeads or retrogradely transported AAV vectors (AAVrg-hSyn-EGFP, AAVrg-Ef1a-DIO-EYFP, AAVrg-CMV-eGFP-Cre) injected into the BLA labelled cell bodies in the VTA, which were then recorded and manipulated as VTA→BLA neurons. In TH-BAC-Cre mice the Cre-dependent retrograde vectors labelled dopaminergic VTA cells, and 87% of the retrogradely defined VTA→BLA GCaMP6-expressing neurons co-labelled for tyrosine hydroxylase (3–4 sections from 3 mice), indicating a largely dopaminergic projection.

Fig. 2a–d; Fig. 3b, c; Supplementary Fig. 3a–d; Methods (viral and tracing strategies)

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