Fig. 2

Neuron subpopulations estimated from IHC analysis of the VTA. (a) VTA region enriched with dopaminergic neurons (green); red, GAD67 signal. The corresponding atlas maps along the anterior-posterior axis are shown at the bottom (red shading, VTA). Colored squares indicate sampling sites (light blue dotted line indicates medial-lateral separation, 0.5 μm apart from central of the atlas). L1–6 and M1–6 were used to indicate the locations from which the IHC images are obtained. (b) Triple immunolabeling for TH⁺ (blue), GAD67⁺ (red), and VGLUT2⁺ (green) neurons in the VTA (4 mice and 13 brain slices, M location: 11 images, L location: 9 images). The representative images were obtained from M3 location in a. (c Proportions of neuron types in the VTA based on the average number of NeuN⁺ cells (see Fig. 1e; 916.82 ± 33.77 cells/mm²)