Fig. 4

Depression-like behavior, anxiety-like behavior, and cognitive functioning in EV and A53T a-Syn overexpressing animals. (A) A53T a-Syn overexpressing animals showed reduced sucrose preference compared to EV controls at week 6 (0.850 ± 0.014 [A53T], 0.895 ± 0.012 [EV]; p = 0.0370) with no difference at week 3 (0.839 ± 0.015 [A53T], 0.830 ± 0.012 [EV]; p > 0.999), indicating elevated depression-like behavior in the A53T group at the late timepoint (Group x Time: F (1, 74) = 4.169, p = 0.0447). (B) No difference in total fluid consumption during the sucrose preference test was found between groups at both timepoints (week 3: 13.84 ± 0.57 g [EV], 14.25 ± 0.44 g [A53T], p > 0.9999; week 6: 14.11 ± 0.69 g [EV], 13.65 ± 0.67 g [A53T], p > 0.9999) (Group: F (1, 74) = 0.001548, p = 0.9687). (C) No anxiety-like behavior was detected in the novelty-suppressed feeding test, as latency to eat did not differ between groups at any timepoint (week 3: 51.2 ± 11.6 s [EV], 36.4 ± 6.5 s [A53T], p = 0.3591; week 6: 28.8 ± 6.6 s [EV], 38.2 ± 4.8 s [A53T], p = 0.7878) (Group: F (1, 74) = 0.1237, p = 0.7260). (D) A non-significant trend towards reduced palatable food consumption was observed in the A53T group in the novelty-suppressed feeding test (week 3: 8.8 ± 0.8 [EV], 8.0 ± 0.5 [A53T], p = 0.3591; week 6: 9.3 ± 1.1 [EV], 7.7 ± 0.5 [A53T], p = 0.2460) (Group × Time: F (1, 74) = 0.3173, p = 0.5749). (E) Comparable time was spent in the periphery in the open field test by both groups at both timepoints (week 3: 17.4 ± 3.5 s [EV], 20.5 ± 3.4 s [A53T], p = 0.8981; week 6: 9.8 ± 1.6 s [EV], 11.1 ± 1.8 s [A53T], p > 0.9999) (Group: F (1, 74) = 0.5779, p = 0.4498). (F) Recognition memory, assessed by the novel object recognition test, was intact in both groups at all timepoints (p > 0.9999) (Group: F (1, 74) = 0.04472, p = 0.8331). Sample sizes: n = 20 for A53T, n = 19 for EV. Data are shown as mean ± SEM. *p \(<\hspace{0.17em}\)0.05, **p \(<\hspace{0.17em}\)0.01 for the post hoc Bonferroni comparison following two-way ANOVA.