Figure 3.
CaV1.2 conditional knock-out mice exhibit significant deficits in context discrimination. A, Mice were trained to discriminate between two similar contexts through context exposure to each context once a day for 10 d with one context, and the same context, paired with a footshock. Context discrimination throughout training was assessed using a discrimination ratio, with a ratio of 0.5 representing a lack of discrimination between the two contexts. B, While wild-type mice (n = 18) displayed a significant discrimination ratio >0.5 (indicated by a dashed line) by day 3–4 of training, CaV1.2 conditional knock-out mice (n = 17) failed to show a significant discrimination ratio until days 9–10. Additionally, analysis between genotypes revealed a significant deficit in context discrimination in CaV1.2 conditional knock-out mice compared with wild-type mice. C, Comparison of average freezing levels between the trained context, A, and the similar context, B, on days 9–10 of training reveal revealed a significant effect of genotype and context, but no interaction between genotype and context. Data are represented as the mean ± SEM.