Fig. 1
Dlx-cKO mice exhibit an autistic-like phenotype. a Dlx-cKO mice showed similar times spent interacting with empty cylinders during the habituation phase of the three-chambered social assay. Cyl1/Cyl2: empty cylinders 1 and 2. Soc: social cylinder containing a stimulus mouse. Non-soc: nonsocial cylinder containing an object. (WT, n = 28; Dlx-cKO, n = 26; paired t-test). b Wild-type mice showed a significant preference for interacting with the cylinder containing a social stimulus, but Dlx-cKO mice did not show a significant difference in time spent sniffing the social and nonsocial cylinders (paired t-test). c Dlx-cKO mice also spent significantly reduced time initiating social contact during the direct interaction phase (unpaired t-test). d Dlx-cKO mice showed unaltered ability to discriminate between odors and habituation to the same odor upon repeated presentation. However, Dlx-cKO mice show a reduced time sniffing a social scent compared to WT (WT, n = 20; Dlx-cKO, n = 14; two-way ANOVA with Holm-Sidak’s multiple comparisons test; error bars demonstrate s.e.m.). e Dlx-cKO mice spent significantly more time engaging in repetitive behaviors, including grooming and digging, within a 10-min period in a home-cage like environment (WT, n = 18; Dlx-cKO, n = 16; unpaired t-test). f Dlx-cKO mice show significantly reduced nesting scores on the nesting assay (WT, n = 9; Dlx-cKO, n = 8; Mann–Whitney test). g Dlx-cKO mice show unaltered spontaneous alternation percentage in comparison to WT mice (WT, n = 20; Dlx-cKO: n = 12; unpaired t-test). h The total number of entries made were not significantly different between Dlx-cKO and WT mice (unpaired t-test). i Dlx-cKO mice did not show a significant difference in the total number of errors made on forward probe trials of the Barnes maze (WT, n = 18; Dlx-cKO: n = 14; unpaired t-test). j Dlx-cKO mice made significantly more errors on the reversal probe trials of the Barnes maze (unpaired t-test). k On the reversal probe trials, Dlx-cKO mice also made significantly more perseverations, or visits to the original target hole location (Mann–Whitney test). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file
