Figure 4.

Dietary emulsifiers alter anxiety-like behaviors in male and female mice. (A) There was a main effect of emulsifier treatment to decrease the time spent in the center of the open field test [F_(2,29) = 4.14, p < 0.05]. Post-hoc analyses indicate that in males, treatment with emulsifiers decreases in the time spent in the center, compared to water-treated controls (*p < 0.05). (B) Multivariate test statistics measured the impact of additional behavioral measures captured in the automated open field apparatus (Table 1). The canonical discrimination function plot and Wilk’s lambda revealed a significant separation of groups by sex and emulsifier consumption along five discriminant functions [Λ = 0.010, Χ²(30) = 108.204, p < 0.01]. (C) Emulsifier consumption increased the total distance traveled in the elevated plus maze [F_(2,29) = 3.94, p < 0.05]. Post-hoc analyses indicate that in males, treatment with CMC significantly increased the distance traveled in the EPM (*p < 0.05). In addition, there was a main effect of sex [F_(1,29) = 10.42 p < 0.01], such that females traveled a greater distance, compared to males, regardless of treatment. (D) There was no significant effect of emulsifier treatment on the total number of entries into the light portions of the light/dark box. Irrespective of treatment, however, female mice made significantly more entries into the light portion of the light/dark box [F_(1,29) = 13.76, p < 0.001]. Data are represented as means + SEM (n = 5–6).