Figure 4. Social interactions and other behaviors in rats pre-exposed to saline (Sal) and valproic acid (VPA) during gestation.

Measurements were taken immediately before setup for fMRI studies and 60 minutes after an intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection. Experiments tested whether VPA altered social behavior and neural processing, and if this involves an altered role for the V_1a receptor. Thus, Sal and VPA rats were subdivided into animals that were given an ICV injection of Sal or a vasopressin V_1a receptor antagonist. The groups are: Sal-CSF (open bar), VPA-CSF (close bar), Sal-V_1a (diagonal patterned), and VPA- V_1a (upward patterned). Data shown as mean ± standard error. VPA rats showed lower social interaction (left) and trended towards higher locomotor activity (p = 0.07). *Significantly different from Sal-Sal (p<0.05; two way ANOVA).