Figure 3.

ASD social interaction deficits in Shank3^{ex13–16−/−} mice are prevented by increased dietary zinc. (A) All mice display normal social interaction during phase two of the three-chamber test. (B) $Shank{3}_{30\text{ ppm}}^{\text{ex1}3-16-/-}$ mice lack social novelty recognition during phase three, displaying no preference for the stranger or familiar mouse. Increased dietary zinc recovered the social novelty recognition behavior in Shank3^{ex13–16−/−} mice. (C) Example heat maps of phase three of the social interaction test. WT mice on the normal and high zinc diet prefer the novel mouse as depicted by increased presence close to stranger 2. Shank3^{ex13–16−/−} mice on the normal zinc diet show no preference for the novel mouse (stranger 2), but do show increased interaction with the novel mouse when fed the high zinc diet. All data represent mean ± SEM, two-tailed paired t-test. WT_{30 ppm} n = 9, $Shank{3}_{30\text{ ppm}}^{\text{ex1}3-16-/-}$ n = 6, WT_{150 ppm} n = 8, $Shank{3}_{150\text{ ppm}}^{\text{ex1}3-16-/-}$ n = 7 mice. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001, NS, not significant.