Fig. 1
Somatostatin interneuron activity is necessary during object location memory acquisition. A Left: representative image of CAG-driven cre-dependent Arch-GFP expression in a SOM-Cre mice. Right: diagram of behavioral testing sequence. B Experimental protocol of the object location memory task with optogenetic light stimulation (520 nm) for the duration of the training session. C–G Color coding of groups is as follows. Grey: EYFP injected mice with light, n = 7 mice. Chartreuse green: Arch injected mice without light (Arch No light), n = 8 mice. Emerald green: Arch injected mice with light (Arch Light) n = 8 mice. Dark colors, training; light colors, test. C Representative path traveled during training and test sessions. D Left: graph of the total exploration time of objects during the training session, showing no difference between groups (one way ANOVA). Middle: graph of the percentage of time spent exploring the mobile object during training and test sessions, showing no difference during training sessions, but reduced exploration time during test session for mice with SOM-INs silencing (Arch Light) relative to controls. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA, Bonferroni pairwise multiple comparisons. Right: graph of preference ratio indicating a deficit in mice with SOM-INs silencing (Arch Light) relative to control mice (EYFP and Arch No light) (Kruskal–Wallis one-way ANOVA on ranks). ns p > 0.05, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. E Open field. Left: zone separations used for analysis. Right: representative path traveled during the open field test for EYFP, Arch No light and Arch Light mice. F Graphs showing similar times spent in periphery (left) or center (middle), and ratio of time in center/periphery (right), indicating normal anxiety. One-way ANOVA, ns p > 0.05. G Graphs showing similar total distance traveled (left) and zone transitions (right) in all groups. Total distance: Kruskal–Wallis one-way ANOVA on Ranks. Zone transitions: one-way ANOVA, ns p > 0.05. Details of all statistical tests in this and following figures are listed in Additional file 1