Fig. 5: Single exposure to psilocin during early postnatal development produces anhedonia in adulthood.

A Timeline of pharmacokinetics experiment allowing for the assessment of acute maternal care behaviors in response to psilocybin as well as the psilocybin pharmacokinetics of pups, dams and virgin females. B The pharmacokinetic time-course of psilocybin and psilocin levels in the brains of pups before maternal psilocybin injection (n = 3), or 30 min (n = 5), 1 h (n = 5), or 2 h (n = 5) following reunion. C The levels of psilocin present in the brains of postpartum females (PF; n = 5) and virgin females (VF; n = 6) 2 h following psilocybin treatment. D Timeline of behavioral battery. Data illustrated in E–J represent primary endpoints measured in the battery for adult female and male littermates treated with either saline (n = 12,14) or psilocin (n = 12,14) on postnatal day 7. E Time spent in the center zone of the open field test. F Percentage of time spent making alternations in the T-maze spontaneous alternation task. G Sociability index indicating the relative time in the interaction chamber of a novel object compared to a familiar mouse, (t_mouse – t_object) / (t_mouse + t_object). H Social novelty index indicating the relative time spent in the interaction chamber of a novel mouse compared to a familiar mouse, (t_{novel mouse} – t_{familiar mouse}) / (t_{novel mouse} + t_{familiar mouse}). I Sucrose preference score indicating the ratio of 1% sucrose solution consumed in a 24 h period when given the option between that and water. J Time spent immobile in the forced swim test. K Integrative behavioral risk score, an integrative measure of global impairments in the test battery calculated by averaging z-normalized results from the primary endpoints of each behavioral test for each animal, such that the greater the risk score, the greater the global impairment. Individual data in B, E–J are presented as aligned dot plots and bar charts representing mean ± SEM. Data in C, K are presented as mean ± SEM and statistical comparisons in psilocin content are made using a t test (two-sided). Statistical comparisons between psilocin- and saline-treated pups are made using a two-way analysis of variance. *p < 0.05. Exact P values are provided in the Source Data.