Fig. 4

Inhibition of SOM neuronal activity of the mPFC mimics social defects in SOM-Cre/Magel2 WT mice. A Cartoon of the injection of recombinant AAV virus. B Neurons in the mPFC infected with AAV-DIO-hM4Di-mCherry (red) co-stained with SOM-expressing interneurons (green). Quantification of specificity of hM4Di-mCherry to label SOM interneurons (n = 8 per group). C Example recording of spontaneous spikes from a SOM interneuron before (top) and after CNO administration (bottom). D statistics of SOM firing rates before and after CNO administration (n = 17 cells in 6 mice for each group). E Representative heat map displaying the locations of an mCherry-expressing control animal (top) and an hM4Di-expressing mouse (bottom) in the three-chamber test following CNO administration. F Quantification of time spent by mCherry and hM4Di mice in each compartment. mCherry mice spent significantly more time in the compartments of the unfamiliar animal relative to the novel object. No dramatic difference in the time spent exploring the compartment containing the novel animal relative to the time spent exploring the novel object for hM4Di mice. G mCherry mice spent more time sniffing the unfamiliar animal compared with the novel object. The hM4Di mice spent similar time sniffing with the novel mouse and the novel object. H Social interaction index was significantly lower in hM4Di mice. Sample size of 10 in F, G, H was calculated. I Sample path recordings during the entire 30-min period in the open field test. J The locomotor activities of the control (mCherry) and hM4Di-expressing animal at 5-min intervals were evaluated 30 min after CNO injection. Quantification of the total distance moved (K) and the amount of time spent in the arena’s center (L). Sample size of 10 in J, K, L was determined. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. One-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test. Unpaired Student’s t-test. ^***p < 0.001, ^$$$p < 0.001, compared to mCherry group; ^###p < 0.001, ^^^ p < 0.001 for novel mouse vs. novel object; “ns” indicates not significantly different