Vectashield mounting medium with dapi counterstain

At the end of the experiments, the mice were injected with a ketamine-xylazine cocktail solution (100 mg/kg ketamine + 10 mg/kg xylazine). When anesthetized, mice underwent an intracardiac perfusion with 0.9% sterile saline, followed by 30% sucrose formalin solution (weight/volume). The brains were kept in 30% sucrose formalin solution for at least 48 hours in 4°C before being sectioned on a cryostat (40 μm sections) at −20°C. Slides were cover slipped with VECTASHIELD mounting medium with DAPI counterstain (Vector Labs, Burlingame, CA). Images were taken using an Olympus AX-70 Wide-field Multi-mode microscope at 4X magnification. Subjects were removed from analyses if there was no expression of the virus or if a brain region outside of the NAc core was expressing virus. Adobe Photoshop, GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) 2.10, BioRender, and GraphPad Prism software were used to create images.

Following the completion of behavioral experiments, mice underwent an intracardiac perfusion. Mice were first anesthetized with ketamine-xylazine (100 mg/kg ketamine + 10 mg/kg xylazine). After anesthetization, animals were intracardially perfused with 0.9% saline followed by a 30% formalin solution (weight/volume). Brains were stored in 30% sucrose formalin in 4°C for a least 48 h before being sectioned. Brains were sectioned with a cryostat into 40 μM sections at −20 °C. VECTASHIELD mounting medium with DAPI counterstain (Vector Labs, Burlingame, CA), was used to coverslip slides. An Olympus AX-70 Wide-field Multi-mode microscope was used to image sections at 4X magnification. Any subjects were removed from analysis if there was no viral expression or if the regions of interest were missed. Adobe Photoshop, GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) 2.10, BioRender, and GraphPad Prism software were used to create images.