Fig. 1: Chemogenetic silencing of PVH-OXT neurons impairs short- and long-term SRM. | Molecular Psychiatry

Fig. 1: Chemogenetic silencing of PVH-OXT neurons impairs short- and long-term SRM.

From: Oxytocin activity in the paraventricular and supramammillary nuclei of the hypothalamus is essential for social recognition memory in rats

Fig. 1: Chemogenetic silencing of PVH-OXT neurons impairs short- and long-term SRM.The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

a A schematic showing the behavioral experimental design. Saline and CNO treatments were counterbalanced between test days, and short and long-term SRM were counterbalanced between cohorts. b A schematic of the experimental design for the short-term SRM. Saline or CNO was injected 30 min prior to the 1st encounter. c Top: A representative trace (from one rat per treatment during the 2nd encounter) following saline or CNO injection. Bottom: Heat maps representing investigation time across all rats during Novel or Familiar stimuli investigation following Saline or CNO. Each row represents one rat. d Total investigation time of the Novel vs. Familiar stimuli during the 2-ns encounter. Saline-injected rats showed a clear preference for Novel over Familiar stimuli, whereas same rats injected with CNO showed no preference for either stimuli (two-way repeated measures (RM) ANOVA), social preference (Familiar vs. Novel) × treatment (Saline vs. CNO) interaction (F1,26 = 9.11, **P = 0.0056, n = 14), effect of social preference (F1,26 = 35.07, ****P < 0.0001), and effect of treatment (F1,26 = 1.7, P = 0.203), post-hoc, Sidak multiple comparison test, Saline (Familiar vs. Novel, ****P < 0.0001) and CNO (Familiar vs. Novel, P = 0.38, ns). e Total investigation time of social stimuli during the 1st encounter. There was no significant difference in the total investigation time between Saline and CNO treatment groups during the 1st encounter (two-tailed paired Student’s t-test, t12 = 0.45, P = 0.65, ns). f A schematic of the experimental design for long-term SRM. Saline or CNO was injected 15 min prior the 1st encounter. g same as (c) but for long-term SRM. h Total investigation time of the Novel vs. Familiar stimuli during the 2nd encounter. Saline-treated animals showed a clear preference for Novel over Familiar stimuli, whereas same rats injected with CNO showed no preference for either stimuli (two-way RM ANOVA), social preference (Familiar vs. Novel) × treatment (Saline vs. CNO) interaction (F1,26 = 10.51,**P = 0.0032, n = 14), effect of social preference (F1,26 = 12.34, **P = 0.0016), and effect of treatment (F1,26 = 0.0005, P = 0.98). post-hoc, Sidak multiple comparison test, Saline (Familiar vs. Novel, ****P < 0.0001) and CNO (Familiar vs. Novel, P = 0.973, ns). i Investigation time of the social stimuli during the 1st encounter. There were no significant differences between saline and CNO injection groups during the 1st encounter (two-tailed paired Student’s t-test, t12 = 0.67, P = 0.51, ns).

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