Figure 4.

Spatial memory and obesity markers. (A) During the Learning Phase, Trial x Treatment interactions suggested that as trials increased, patterns of group performance changed. On Trial 3, the OVX-Vehicle group showed enhanced performance compared to the Sham group and compared to the OVX-E2-Low group, while on Trial 4, the ovary-intact Sham group outperformed the Ovx-E2-High group and tended to outperform the OVX-Vehicle and OVX- E2-Low groups, indicating an OVX-induced impairment at the maximum working memory load that E2 treatment did not attenuate. (B) By the end of WRAM testing, all subjects performed similarly across trials. (C) Each treatment group was not impaired following a four-hour delayed memory retention trial. (D) Each treatment group decreased latency to the visible platform from the first to last trial, indicating swimming, motoric, and visual competency. (E) OVX-Vehicle rats had decreased uterine weights compared to all other groups, indicating that surgery-induced estrogen loss results in a lack of uterine stimulation; E2 treatment after OVX successfully stimulates uterine tissue to that of ovary-intact rats. (F) Body weight increased in OVX-Vehicle rats beginning 10 days after surgery and remained elevated until the end of the experiment compared to all other groups. Group abbreviations (e.g., Sham-Vehicle) are described in Table 1 . Error bars indicate SEM. The asterisks indicate significant differences (*p ≤ 0.05; **p ≤ 0.01; ***p ≤ 0.001; ****p ≤ 0.0001.