Fig. 3: Temporal effects of tactile enrichment on behavior and DG neuron activation.

a Experimental design for the effects of tactile enrichment on memory and anxiety. STE, short-term tactile enrichment; OLT, object location task; EPM, elevated plus maze. n = 10 mice per group. b At 1 week but not 4 weeks after tactile enrichment, improvements in spatial memory performance were still detectable. c At 1 week after tactile enrichment, anxiety level was reduced as shown by increased percentage of time in open arms and number of head dips in the elevated plus maze. d Experimental design for the temporal effects of tactile enrichment on DG neuron activation. n = 7 mice per group. e Representative plots of c-fos⁺ neurons superimposed on empty space distance maps of dDG and vDG. f The density of c-fos⁺ neurons in dDG was similar among groups, whereas the density of activated vDG neurons was increased in the TEE group compared to controls. g Activated neurons in dDG and vDG were more clustered after tactile enrichment ended, but became dispersed again 1 week later. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. Data in bar charts are presented as mean ± SEM. Detailed statistics are provided in Supplementary Table 2. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.