Figure 5. Rat behavior during the sociability stage of the social novelty test.

A. Time spent exploring (upper panel) and number of explorations (lower panel) of an unfamiliar conspecific (Stranger 1), measured in Sham and GA-treated young adult rats. The number of animals in each group is indicated at the bottom of each bar. Female rats, irrespective of treatment, had fewer exploration episodes than male littermates, as assessed by two-way ANOVA (factor sex: F₁,₇₃=9.16, p=0.003; interaction and factor treatment not significant). B. Time spent exploring (upper panel) and number of explorations of an empty wire cage (lower panel), measured in Sham and GA-treated young adult rats. Female rats, irrespective of treatment, spent more time exploring an empty cage than male littermates (factor sex: F₁,₇₃=4.61, p=0.035; interaction and factor treatment not significant). C. Time spent exploring (upper panel) and number of entries (lower panel) to the chamber containing an unfamiliar conspecific (Chamber 1), measured in Sham and GA-treated young adult rats. Female rats in the GA group had more entries to Chamber 1 than Sham controls (interaction: F₁,₇₃=4.09, p=0.047; Sidak’s multiple comparisons test: p=0.033). D. Time spent exploring (upper panel) and number of entries (lower panel) to the chamber containing an empty wire cage (Chamber 2), measured in Sham and GA-treated young adult rats. Female rats, irrespective of treatment, spent more time exploring Chamber 2 than male littermates (factor sex: F₁,₇₃=4.77, p=0.032; interaction and factor treatment not significant). Female rats in the GA group had more entries to Chamber 2 than Sham controls (interaction: F₁,₇₃=6.67, p=0.012; Sidak’s multiple comparisons test: p=0.010). *p<0.05 and **p<0.01, two-way ANOVA or Sidak’s test. Each bar represents the mean + SEM.