Figure 7.

Hyper-reactivity and escape behavior in Shank3^Δ4-22-deficient mice. A, Hyper-reactivity measured by animal response in touch escape, positional passivity, and catalepsy. Shank3^Δ4-22 homozygous mice have hyper-reactive responses as shown by a higher score in the touch escape indicating an escape response to lighter strokes, a lower score in positional passivity indicating that they struggle more when restrained, and a lower latency to get off a rdownod in the catalepsy test. B, Impulsivity in the negative geotaxis and beam walking tests. The latency to start turning in the negative geotaxis test and to start crossing in the beam walking test are significantly lower in Shank3^Δ4-22 homozygous mice compared to their wild-type and heterozygous littermates and often associated with higher failure rates (data not shown) thus demonstrating impulsive behavior. C, Escape behavior measured in different tests with increased inanimate object exposure. No escape attempts were observed for any genotype during the habituation phase of the buried food test (empty home cage with clean bedding). Object exposure induced a significant escape behavior in Shank3^Δ4-22 homozygous mice with a number of attempts increasing with the number of objects in the cage (same home cage, four objects in the repetitive novel object contact task, 20 objects in the marble burying test). Very little escape attempts were observed in wild-type mice, while an intermediate phenotype was observed in heterozygous mice. WT, wild-type mice; Het, heterozygous mice; KO, homozygous knock-out mice. *: WT vs KO; o: WT vs Het. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.1, ***p < 0.001.