Experimental design
BL/6 mice underwent stereotactic surgery required for conducting fibre photometry of GCaMP6-expressing BA-NAc neurons (n=12) or, for purposes of controlling for signal artefacts, EGFP-expressing BA-NAc neurons (n=4). Surgery was followed by a 21-day period of recovery and AAV vector expression. During the next 5 days, mice were habituated sequentially to: the testing room, being placed in the home cage in an attenuation chamber, being attached to the patch cord. Mice then underwent testing with a social reward-fibre photometry protocol, conducted between 09:00-16:00 h, i.e. during the dark phase.