Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: Nonlinear hippocampal coding of the pair-bonded partner in prairie voles
doi: 10.1101/2025.10.10.681589
Figure Lengend Snippet: a , Partner preference test. Top : Representative heatmaps depicting the proportion of time spent by male prairie voles at each location. Hot color indicates A partner female is located in a small chamber at one side, whereas a stranger female is in a chamber at the other side. The locations of the female voles are swapped from the Session 1 to 2 so that the possibility of place preference can be excluded. Bottom : The interaction time with the partner or stranger female, averaged across animals. Regardless of the female location, males exhibit a consistent preference for their partner ( n = 10 prairie voles, *** P < 0.001, paired t -test). b , Top : ( Left ) Schematic of retrograde tracer (CTB) injection into the NAc and representative image showing labeled neurons in vHPC ( red ). ( Right ) Schematic of anterograde tracer (AAV-hSyn-EGFP) injection into vHPC and resulting projections to the NAc ( green ). Bottom : Quantification of retrogradely labeled cells in the NAc- upstream regions ( n = 7 prairie voles). c , Muscimol or aCSF was bilaterally injected into the ventral hippocampus of male prairie voles. Top: ( Left ) Illustration of the injection experiment. ( Right ) Representative DAPI-stained brain slice showing the injection site in the ventral hippocampus; the dashed white line indicates cannula placement. Bottom : Experimental timeline of the pharmacological manipulation. d , Left : Preference index of male voles in each group. The preference index is defined as (partner interaction time – stranger interaction time) / (partner interaction time + stranger interaction time). The muscimol group shows a significantly reduced preference index compared to baseline, aCSF, and recovery groups ( n = 5 prairie voles, * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, paired t -test followed by Holm correction). Right : Locomotor activity of each group. No significant difference in locomotion across groups ( n = 5 prairie voles, paired t -test followed by Holm correction). Abbreviations : STR, stranger; PAR, partner; CTB, cholera toxin subunit B; NAc, nucleus accumbens; vHPC, ventral hippocampus; aCSF, artificial cerebrospinal fluid.
Article Snippet: Sections were stored in PBS, incubated in fluorescent DAPI solution (1:1000 in PBS; D1306, ThermoFisher) at room temperature for 90 min, washed in PBS for 10 min, and coverslipped using CC/Mount (Diagnostic BioSystems, USA).
Techniques: Injection, Labeling, Staining, Slice Preparation, Activity Assay
