Fig. 5
Acute NMDAR blockade ameliorates autistic-like features in Dlx-cKO mice. a Total grooming in a home-cage like environment is significantly increased in saline-treated Dlx-cKO mice in comparison to WT, and memantine at 5 mg kg−1 significantly rescued the increased grooming phenotype in Dlx-cKO mice (n = 8 for saline groups; n = 7 for memantine groups; one-way ANOVA with Holm-Sidak’s multiple comparisons test). b Memantine significantly reduces the duration of the longest grooming bout in Dlx-cKO mice. c On the dyadic social assay, saline-treated Dlx-cKO mice spend significantly less time initiating social interaction with a novel stimulus mouse in comparison to WT. Memantine at 5 mg kg−1 resulted in a significant increase in time spent in social interaction (n = 8 for saline groups; n = 7 for WT—memantine; n = 8 for Dlx-cKO—memantine; one-way ANOVA with Holm-Sidak’s multiple comparisons test). d For co-tested pairs of Dlx-cKO and WT mice, the ratio of time spent in direct interaction was significantly reduced in saline-treated mice. Memantine normalized this ratio, indicating a differential effect of this drug on social interaction in WT and Dlx-cKO mice (n = 7 for all groups; unpaired t-test). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file
