Fig. 1: Respiratory and behavioral changes following acute restraint stress. | Nature Communications

Fig. 1: Respiratory and behavioral changes following acute restraint stress.

From: GABAergic neurons in central amygdala contribute to orchestrating anxiety-like behaviors and breathing patterns

Fig. 1

a Schematic of the experimental procedure. b Distribution of RF (bin size 0.5 Hz) over a 40-min assay. n = 10 mice for both the new cage group and the ARS-treated group. p = 0.0252 for 4 Hz, p = 0.0061 for 5 Hz, p = 0.0134 for 6 Hz, p < 0.0001 for 2.5, 3, 3.5 and 5.5 Hz. c Example recordings of plethysmography airflow traces of the new cage group (blue) and ARS group (red). d Accumulative duration spent in active and quiescent states during 40-min plethysmography recording (n = 7 mice for each group). p = 0.0023 for active; p = 0.0023 for quiescent. Percent of time (e, n = 7 mice for each group) and accumulative duration (f, n = 7 mice for each group) of each behavior as defined in (c). After ARS, the duration of grooming and eupnea episodes increased, while the duration of sniff and sleep episodes decreased (groom, p = 0.0006; sniff, p = 0.0065; eupnea, p = 0.0016; sleep, p < 0.0001). g Percent of time spent on each behavior in every 5-min interval over 40 min (n = 7 mice for each group). Time-series change in the duration of moving (h), grooming (i), sniff (j), eupnea (k) and sleep (l) in every 5 min interval following new cage and ARS treatments. h 0–5 min, p = 0.0206. i, 0–5 min, p = 0.0028; 16–20 min, p = 0.0186; 21–25 min, p = 0.0013; 26–30 min, p = 0.0439. j 0–5 min, p < 0.0001. k 31–35 min, p = 0.0017; 36–40 min, p < 0.0001. l p < 0.0001 for 16–40 min. m A decrease in RF was observed immediately following the ARS, and elevated during 20 to 30 min (n = 10 mice per group). p = 0.0271 for 0 min, p < 0.0001 for 20 and 30 min. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001 by two-way ANOVA followed by Šídák’s multiple comparisons test (b, h–m), two-tailed Mann–Whitney test (d, f moving), two-tailed unpaired t test followed by Welch’s correction (f, groom and sniff) and two-tailed unpaired t test (f, eupnea and sleep). All data are presented as the mean ± SEM. ns, not significant. Source data is provided as a Source Data file. The materials depicted in (a) are created in BioRender. Xiaoyi, W. (2025) https://BioRender.com/i81e326. RF respiratory frequency, ARS acute restraint stress.

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