Response of BLA to social defeat stress. a mRNA levels of zif 268 and arc in BLA tissues gradually increased at day 1 after stimulation, peaked at day 3 after stimulation, and decreased at day 7 after stimulation compared with control mice, one way ANOVA with Tukey’s test was used, F = 21.5, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 compared with the control, n = 8. b mRNA levels of arc in BLA tissues gradually increased at day 1 after stimulation, peaked at day 3 after stimulation, and decreased at day 7 after stimulation compared with control mice, one way ANOVA with Tukey’s test was used, F = 26.7, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 compared with the control, n = 8. c Representative image of the Western blot of c-Fos. d Statistical analysis of c-Fos expression, one way ANOVA with Tukey’s test was used, F = 5.6, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 compared with the control, n = 8. e Representative images of c-Fos staining in BLA. Squares in the upper images indicate areas that are shown magnified in the bottom images. Blue arrows indicate c-Fos-positive cells. f Cell count in the BLA, one way ANOVA with Tukey’s test was used, F = 16.357, **p < 0.01 compared with the control, n = 4