Figure 1.

Effects of chronic simvastatin treatment in the social interaction, elevated plus-maze, and inhibitory avoidance tests. Simvastatin treatment (1.5 mg/kg per day; i.p.) reduced the total time spent in active social interaction (a). No statistically significant difference was found in (b) the percentage of time spent in the open arms, (c) the percentage of open entries and in (d) the total arm entries evaluated in the elevated plus-maze test. Simvastatin treatment (e) had no effects on the approach latency in the acquisition trial of the inhibitory avoidance task, whereas (f) enhanced 24-h avoidance latencies in the retention trial. (g) No statistically significance difference was found between simvastatin-treated rats and their controls in response to shock delivered during the acquisition trial of the inhibitory avoidance test. Data represent mean values±SEM. *P<0.05, ***P<0.001 vs control (n=10–11 per treatment group). Veh, vehicle-treated rats. Sim, simvastatin-treated rats.