Figure 3
From: Effects of maternal social isolation on adult rodent offspring cognition
Maternal care and behaviour were scored in control (n = 4) and MSIS (n = 4) dams during the first 10 min of every hour over a 24-h period on post-natal day 1 (P1). Data is presented as ± SEM. (A) The percent time spent in the core nest was calculated as total time in the nest divided by total assessment time and multiplied by 100. (B) The nursing score percentage consisted of summing the scores (0–3) for each 10-min bin and dividing it by 24 bins. This average was then divided by 30 and multiplied by 100. No difference was observed between the control and MSIS groups in the amount of time they spent in the core nest or their nursing score. (C) A qualitative nursing score was also evaluated using the same nursing score except only the scores from 1 to 3 were used to represent the quality of the nursing given. The results revealed that the MSIS dams displayed significantly better nursing than the control dams (*p < 0.05). Other measures scored were the amount of time spent (D) self-grooming and (E) tail-chasing. No group differences were found on these measures. (F) A pup retrieval test was performed on P2 as an indication of the dam’s responsiveness to her pups. No significant differences were found between the groups. The higher mean time displayed by the control group resulted from a dam not retrieving any pups during the 5-min test.
