Figure 4. BCAS2 cKO mice show impaired cognitive behavior.

(a) Locomotor activity in the open field test. cKO mice (n = 14) showed no difference compared to WT mice (n = 10) in the open field test analyzed by Student’s t-test. (b) Morris water maze. The latency of BCAS2 cKO mice to find the hidden platform was longer than that of WT for 4 constitutive training days. Two-way ANOVA (genotype versus day) revealed a major genotype effect and day effect for both groups. (c) Probe test after the Morris water maze, 24 hours after the last training day. The hidden platform was removed, and the percentage of time spent in the target quadrant was analyzed by Student’s t-test (WT, n = 5; cKO, n = 6). (d) Fear memory analysis. The passive avoidance test was performed using the Gemini avoidance system with a foot shock of 0.1 mA for 3 s. On the test day, the retention latency of the mouse in the light chamber was recorded, and the maximum time was set to 300 s. The data are shown as the mean ± S.E.M., and the P value was analyzed by a two-tailed Student’s t-test (WT: n = 5; cKO: n = 7). All tested mice of each genotype were at 12 weeks old.