Fig. 3. Motor behavior and social behavior are abnormal in early postnatal Atoh1^Cre/+;Vglut2^fl/fl mice.

a Schematic of circuit modifications in Atoh1^Cre/+;Vglut2^fl/fl conditional knockout mice. VGluT1 (blue); VGluT2 (orange); Control mice (black); Atoh1^Cre/+;Vglut2^fl/fl mice (reddish purple). b The time to turn upward on a negative slope was measured. Atoh1^Cre/+;Vglut2^fl/fl conditional knockout mice required a longer time to turn compared to control littermates at P7 (p < 0.001; d = 0.97) and P11 (p = 0.015; d = 0.59) but not at P9 (p = 0.431; d = 0.19). c The time to right themselves onto their four paws was measured. Atoh1^Cre/+;Vglut2^fl/fl mice required a longer time to turn compared to control littermates at P7 (p < 0.001; d = 1.49), P9 (p < 0.001; d = 1.26), and P11 (p < 0.001; d = 1.09). d The number of vocalizations after separation from the nest was measured. Atoh1^Cre/+;Vglut2^fl/fl conditional knockout pups made fewer vocalizations than their control littermates at P7 (p < 0.001; d = 0.90) and P9 (p = 0.004; d = 0.69) but not at P11(p = 0.373; d = 0.20). e The duration of vocalizations after separation from the nest was measured. Atoh1^Cre/+;Vglut2^fl/fl pups made shorter vocalizations compared to control littermates at P7 (p = 0.024; d = 0.55), but not at P9 (p = 0.700; d = 0.10) or P11 (p = 0.677; d = 0.10). Control: N = 38 (18f/20m); Atoh1^Cre/+;Vglut2^fl/fl: N = 30 (17f/13m). Dots represent the means for each mouse, horizontal lines represent the group means, and shaded areas represent the distributions of the data. Data points from control mice in black, and data points from Atoh1^Cre/+;Vglut2^fl/fl mice in reddish purple. A linear mixed model analysis with genotype as a fixed variable and mouse number as a random variable was used to test for statistical significance in (b–e). A post hoc analysis was performed to test for the statistical differences at each time point. Source data and detailed statistical results are available and provided as a Source Data file. Panels (b, d) were adapted from Van der Heijden et al., 2022, “Quantification of Behavioral Deficits in Developing Mice With Dystonic Behaviors,” Dystonia⁴⁷ under CC BY 4.0.