Fig. 4

Calcium activities of mPFC pyramidal neuron ensembles tuned to specific task-related behaviors. A Diagram of calcium recording in the custom-designed training chamber. B Left: a schematic of GRIN lens implantation in the mPFC. Right: a representative image of injection with GCaMP6f and implantation of a GRIN lens in the mPFC. Scale bar: 200 μm. C A representative image of mPFC pyramidal neurons labeled with GCaMP6f at maximum projection fluorescence. Scale bar: 100 μm. D A schedule of calcium recording. E Raster plots of individual neural calcium activities and calcium traces of the averaged group activity of Poking-ON, Poking-OFF, Reward-ON, and Reward-OFF neurons (Pok-ON, Pok-OFF, Rew-ON, and Rew-OFF) from a representative mouse. Vertical black lines, onset of poking; vertical blue-dotted lines, onset of reward; vertical red-dotted lines, onset of licking behavior without water reward. F Raster plot of the averaged z score of individual Poking-ON and Poking-OFF neurons at the onset of poking behavior (5 s before and 5 s after), sorted by the time of maximal activities (ON neurons) or minimal activities (OFF neurons). G Spatial distributions of Pok-ON and Pok-OFF neurons from the same representative mouse; scale bar, 100 μm. H Raster plot of the averaged z score of individual Reward-ON and Reward-OFF neurons at the onset of drinking behavior (5 s before and 5 s after), sorted by the time of maximal activities (ON neurons) or minimal activities (OFF neurons). I Spatial distributions of Rew-ON and Rew-OFF neurons from the same representative mouse; scale bar, 100 μm. J Left: schematic of interbehavior overlap between Pok-ON and Rew-ON neural ensembles. Right: calcium events per trial aligned to poking behavior onset (black arrow) are shown from an example Pok-ON neuron (top), an example Pok-ON and Rew-ON neuron (middle) and an example Rew-ON neuron (bottom). The blue arrow shows the onset of drinking behavior