Pharmacological inactivation of the BLA in female rats interfered with social affective preference behavior.

A. Schematic diagram of experimental design. Bilateral cannula were implanted into the BLA of female test rats and, 4 weeks later, rats received saline or muscimol infusions 60 minutes before SAP testing with juvenile or adult conspecifics. B. Schematic of cannula implants into the BLA. C. Mean (with individual replicates) time spent interacting with the naïve or stressed juvenile conspecifics during the 5 min SAP test. Solid lines indicate bilateral BLA injections while dashed lines indicate unilateral injections. After vehicle injections, rats preferred interactions with stressed juveniles compared to naïve juveniles (p = 0.054), which was abolished after muscimol infusion (100 ng per side in 0.5μL saline) A social affect x drug interaction effect was observed (p = 0.022). D. Mean (with individual replicates) time spent interacting with the naïve or stressed adult conspecifics during the 5 min SAP test. After vehicle injections, rats preferred interactions with naïve adults compared to stressed adults (p E. Data from C and D presented as a preference for the stressed conspecific as a percentage of total social interaction (with individual replicates). Experimental rats preferred interactions with stressed juveniles (p = 0.038) and naïve adults (p = 0.04) under vehicle treatment, which was abolished following muscimol infusion. *p BioRender.com. Atlas images recreated from Paxinos and Watson (1998) [63].