Fig. 1.

Postoperative cognitive decline persists up to the fourth week following surgery in adult mice. A Experimental protocol diagram; B swimming speeds of mice during training days in the MWM; C the number of total arm entries in the Y maze; D, H Escape latencies during training days in the MWM; E, I Times of target crossings on the testing day in the MWM; F, J Percentages of time spent in the target zone on the testing day in the MWM; G, K Spontaneous alternation rate in the Y maze. D, day post operation; MWM, Morris water maze; C, control; S2/S3/S4, animals that underwent behavioral testing at weeks 2/3/4 after surgery. N = 16–20/group. S4 vs. C, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01; S4 vs. S2, ^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01