Fig. 3: Different outcome measures following chronic and acute stress.

a Behavior in the SPT after 4 weeks of chronic mild stress in male (top) and female (bottom) C57Bl/6 mice. Stressed animals showed a reduction in sucrose preference and total liquid consumption. A micro-structural analysis of licking behavior followed by computational model fitting indicated sex-dependent changes to the component processes subserving sucrose preference. b Behavior in the SPT after 4 h of acute restraint stress in male (top) and female (bottom) C57Bl/6 mice. Acute stress induced a sucrose preference deficit through a reduction in the choice size ratio, but only in female mice. Two different control (ctrl) groups were used to account for the lack of access to food and water in the stressed mice, but these control groups were merged since no significant differences were found between them (Supplementary Fig. 7). Line plots indicate mean ± SEM for the development of % sucrose preference within the session. Datapoints in bar graphs indicate individual animals; error bars indicate mean ± SEM. Asterisks indicate significance in unpaired t-test or Mann–Whitney test; ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05; see Supplementary Table 1 for statistical details. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.