Fig. 4.

Deficiency in innate fear leads to deficits in risk assessment during pup retrieval in stathmin^−/− females. (A and B) Innate fear is deficient in stathmin^−/− females and in BLA-lesioned WT females. In the open field (A), the mutants and lesioned animals spent more time in the center of the arena; in the elevated plus maze (B), the mutants and lesioned animals spent more time in the open arms compared to the control mice. *, P < 0.05; ***, P < 0.001. (C) Pup retrieval in the open field. Stathmin^−/− females and BLA-lesioned WT females choose in random fashion the place to rebuild the nest and retrieve the pups, in contrast to control animals, who prefer corners of the open field. Upper photograph shows the view of the open field with the pieces of the nest broken apart, three scattered pups (dashed circles), and the female at the beginning of the experiment. Three photographs in the middle show the final stage of the experiment with three possible choices that the females make for the locations of the nest and the pups. Results are presented as mean ± SEM.