Experimental design
BL/6 mice (n=45) were infused bilaterally in NAc with the retrograde
neuronal tracer, recombinant cholera toxin subunit β conjugated with
Alexa FluorTM 555 (CTB-555, Invitrogen); 300 nL of 1
mg/mL were injected per NAc. At 14 days post-surgery, mice were
single-caged and, after a further 3-4 days, assigned at random to the
following stimulus groups: social reward (SR, n=12), social aversion
(SA, n=12), aversive odour (AO, n=7), and no stimulus (No S, n=14).
Directly after completion of the 90-min stimulus test, mice were deeply
anaesthetized and transcardially perfused-fixed. The brains were further
processed for c-Fos immunohistochemistry and quantification of
CTB+, c-Fos+ and
CTB+/c-Fos+ neurons across the AP
and ML extents of the BA.