LEC-NAc neurons are necessary for the encoding, but not the retrieval of a cocaine-context association. (A) Circuit-specific DREADD approach to inhibit LEC-NAc neurons during cocaine-context conditioning. (B) Pretest time spent within the prospective cocaine-paired chamber (Coc), prospective saline-paired chamber (Sal), and center chamber in mCherry-expressing controls (mCh) and Gi-DREADD-expressing mice (Gi). There were no differences between Coc and Sal chambers in each group. Two-way RM ANOVA, P > 0.05. (C) Pretest preference (Coc time minus Sal time) within each group. There were no pretest differences between groups. t-test, P > 0.05. (D) Posttest chamber time in each group. mCh mice spent more time in Coc compared to Sal; however, Gi mice spent an equivalent amount of time in both chambers. Two-way RM ANOVA followed by Holm–Sidak post hoc comparisons, (****) P < 0.0001. (E) Posttest preference within each group. Gi mice had impaired preference for the Coc chamber (relative to Sal) compared to mCh controls. t-test, P < 0.05. (F) Circuit-specific DREADD approach to inhibit LEC-NAc neurons during cocaine-context posttest. (G) Pretest time spent within the prospective Coc, Sal, and center chambers in mCh controls (mCh-CNO), Gi mice that receive vehicle during posttest (Gi-DMSO), and Gi mice that receive CNO during posttest (Gi-CNO). There were no differences between Coc and Sal chambers in each group. Two-way RM ANOVA, P > 0.05. (H) Pretest preference within each group. There were no pretest differences between groups. t-test, P > 0.05. (I) Posttest chamber time in each group. All groups spent more time in Coc compared to Sal. Two-way RM ANOVA, (*) P < 0.05. (J) Posttest preference within each group. There were no differences between groups. One-way ANOVA, P > 0.05.
