Fig. 2: Maternal SARS-CoV-2 vaccination promoted short-memory in pups at 1 month after birth.

a Diagram of the experimental procedure, behavior tests were performed 1 month after birth. b Experimental approach of habituation and testing for OFT. c Effects of maternal SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on exploratory behavior in pups (SCV pups) from vaccinated dams and the controls were measured in OFT at 1 month postnatally, n = 22 pups (Control group), n = 20 (SCV-50 μL group), and n = 18 (SCV-100 μL group). d Experimental approach of NOR training and testing; e At age of 1 month, SARS-CoV-2 vaccination pups showed increased preference to the new object in the NOR tests as compared to vehicle controls, n = 22 pups (Control group) and n = 17 (SCV-50 μL and SCV-100 μL groups). f Experimental approach of spontaneous stage and recognition stage in Y maze test; (g, h, i, j) At age of 1 month, SCV pups performed increased duration in novel arm in the Y maze tests compared to the controls (g); no obvious changes were found in total distances in OFT (h) and Y maze test (j), alteration percentage in spontaneous stage of Y maze test (i) in SCV pups, relative to the controls. For g, i and j, n = 15 pups (Control and SCV-100 μL groups) and n = 16 (SCV-50 μL group). For h, n = 19 pups (Control group), n = 16 (SCV-50 μL group), and n = 17 (SCV-100 μL group). Statistics calculated by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey HSD test (c, h, i, j) and paired Student’s t test (e, g). ns: non-significant; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. Graphs indicate mean ± s.e.m.