Fig. 3.

Extracellular norepinephrine (NE) release in the lateral septum (LS) of juvenile male and female rats increased in response to vasopressin (AVP), social play exposure and V1aR antagonist (V1aR-a) treatment. NE release was measured in the LS under baseline conditions and in response to LS-AVP retrodialysis (males n = 10, females n = 10; a–c), social play exposure (males n = 8, females n = 8; d–f), and LS-V1aR-a retrodialysis (males n = 9, females n = 8; g–i). The percent of baseline NE release increased in males and females in response to AVP retrodialysis (b), during social play exposure (e), and during V1aR antagonist retrodialysis (h). No sex differences in absolute NE concentrations were observed under baseline conditions (Baseline = mean of dialysates 1 and 2; c, f, i), but females showed higher absolute NE concentrations than males during social play exposure (Play = dialysate 3; f). Data are presented as mean+SEM; Two-way ANOVA for repeated measures (sex × dialysate) followed by one-way ANOVA for repeated measures by sex (dialysate) followed by LSD post-hoc testing for b, e, and h; Student’s t-test for c, f, and i; ‡ p < 0.05, treatment effect in males, dialysate 3 vs. dialysate 2 (h) and dialysate 4 vs. dialysates 1 and 2 (b, h); *p < 0.05, treatment effect in females, dialysate 3 vs. dialysate 1 (e), dialysate 3 vs. dialysate 1 and 2 (h), dialysate 4 vs. dialysates 1 and 2 (e, h); ^#p < 0.05 females vs. males (f)