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.