Fig 4. Prenatal bisphenol exposure was associated with reduced anxiety-like behavior in the open field after accounting for postnatal nest attendance from PND 1–5 for male offspring.

No main effects of prenatal treatment were found for (A) time spent in open arms or (B) time spent in the closed arms of the elevated plus maze (EPM), although there was a significant interaction of prenatal treatment and offspring sex on time spent in the closed arms of the EPM. Significant main effects of offspring sex were found for (C) time spent in the center and (D) time spent in the corners of the open field, where female offspring were more anxious than male offspring. (E) A significant main effect of postnatal nest attendance was found for time spent in the center in the open field for male offspring. A significant interaction between prenatal treatment and postnatal nest attendance was found for time spent in the center in the open field for (E) male offspring but not (F) female offspring. After accounting for postnatal nest attendance, the 50 μg/kg BPA and 50 μg/kg Mixed BP exposure groups showed reduced anxiety-like behavior in the open field compared to the Corn Oil group for male offspring only. Bar plots are displayed with mean +/- SEM with individual datapoints. Scatterplots are displayed with linear regression lines for each prenatal treatment group. * p < 0.05 main effect of prenatal treatment; ❡ p < 0.05 interaction between prenatal treatment and offspring sex; ❖ p < 0.05 main effect of offspring sex; ● p < 0.05 main effect of postnatal maternal care; ★ p < 0.05 interaction between prenatal treatment and postnatal maternal care.