Overlapping representations of food and social stimuli in VTA dopamine neurons

Dopamine neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA(DA)) respond to food and social stimuli and contribute to both forms of motivation. However, it is unclear if the same or different VTA(DA) neurons encode these different stimuli. To address this question, we performed 2-photon calcium imaging in mice presented with food and conspecifics, and found statistically significant overlap in the populations responsive to both stimuli. Both hunger and opposite-sex social experience further increased the proportion of neurons that respond to both stimuli, implying that modifying motivation for one stimulus affects responses to both stimuli. In addition, single-nucleus RNA sequencing revealed significant co-expression of feeding- and social-hormone related genes in individual VTA(DA) neurons. Taken together, our functional and transcriptional data suggest overlapping VTA(DA) populations underlie food and social motivation.