Figure 4.

Late prenatal immune activation leads to altered locomotor and stereotyped behavioral responses to systemic APO treatment. (a) The graph depicts locomotor activity as indexed by the horizontal distance moved following systemic ascorbic acid (VitC, vehicle) treatment and following systemic APO (5 mg/kg, s.c.) treatment. Horizontal distance moved is plotted as a function of 5-min bins. Adult offspring subjected to prenatal Poly-I:C exposure in late gestation displayed an overall significant increase in the horizontal distance moved following APO treatment relative to APO-treated offspring born to control mothers. ^*P<0.05, signifies the significant main effect of prenatal treatment in the corresponding RM-ANOVA. (b) The graph shows the time spent climbing on successive sampling intervals (1-min observation period every 5 min) following VitC and APO treatment. Adult Poly-I:C offspring displayed a significant increase in the time spent climbing specifically during the first observation period compared with APO-treated control offspring. ^*P<0.05, signifies the significant main effect of prenatal treatment in the corresponding ANOVA restricted to the first observation period following APO treatment. (c) The graph depicts the time spent leaning on successive sampling intervals (1-min observation period every 5 min) following VitC and APO treatment. Adult Poly-I:C offspring displayed a significant decrease in the time spent leaning specifically during the first observation period compared with APO-treated control offspring. ^*P<0.05, signifies the significant main effect of prenatal treatment in the corresponding ANOVA restricted to the first observation period following APO treatment. (d) The graph depicts the time spent sniffing on successive sampling intervals (1-min observation period every 5 min) following VitC and APO treatment. There were no significant group differences in the time spent sniffing neither in the initial VitC phase nor in the subsequent APO phase. All values are means±SEM.