Fig. 2.

Hippocampus-related cognitive and behavioral deficits following late prenatal immune activation. a Short-term spatial recognition memory in pubescent, adult, and aged offspring born to poly(I:C)-exposed (POL) or control (CON) mothers as assessed using the Y-maze test. The bar plots show the means ± s.e.m. of percentage time spent in the novel arm during the choice phase of the test. ANOVA revealed a main effect of prenatal treatment (F _(1,61) = 14.72, P < 0.001) and its interaction with age (F _(2,61) = 4.62, P < 0.05). ⁺ P < 0.001, reflecting the significant difference between aged CON and pubescent or adult CON offspring; ^§ P < 0.01, reflecting the significant difference between pubescent or aged POL offspring and pubescent or adult CON offspring; and ^# P < 0.001, reflecting the significant difference between adult POL offspring and pubescent or adult CON offspring, based on Fisher’s least significant (LSD) post hoc tests. N(pubescent CON) = 11, N(pubescent POL) = 10, N(adult CON) = 12, N(adult POL) = 10, N(aged CON) = 12, N(aged POL) = 12. b Total distance moved (means ± s.e.m.) during the choice phase of the Y-maze test. N(pubescent CON) = 11, N(pubescent POL) = 10, N(adult CON) = 12, N(adult POL) = 10, N(aged CON) = 12, N(aged POL) = 12. c Food-hoarding behavior in pubescent, adult, and aged CON and POL offspring. The box plots represent the amount of food hoarded (g, ln-transformed). *P < 0.05, reflecting the significant reduction in food hoarding displayed by aged POL offspring relative to aged CON offspring based on non-parametric Mann–Whitney analysis. N = 10 in each group and age. d The box plots reflect the total amount of food eaten (g, ln-transformed) during the food-hoarding test. N = 10 in each group and age