Figure 6: SD-Nrxn1^tm1Sage Het and KO juveniles do not perform as well as WTs in a complex food-reward task.

(A) Median group latencies to retrieve a food reward from the confinement box. The median time, in seconds, to retrieve a food reward in a single trial each day over 12 consecutive days of testing is plotted for each group. Dashed line at 900 seconds indicates the time at which the experimenter released the door latch if the test animals had not already opened the confinement box door. As a group, KO males and females were not able to open the door and access the food reward without assistance from the experimenter at any time within the 12 day trial. (B) Median group latencies to open the door and retrieve a food reward, averaged over days 2–6 of the trial. There were no differences among groups. (C) Median group latencies to retrieve the food reward, averaged over days 7–12 of the trial. KO males and females demonstrated increased latency to perform this task, compared to WT rats. Kruskal-Wallis, p < 0.05. (D) The percent of test rats per group that successfully retrieved the food reward on each day of testing. Fewer KO and Het males and females become successful door openers relative to sex-matched WT sibling control rats. Chi-Square *** = p < 0.001 (N = 3 WT males, 8 Het males, 8 KO males, 8 WT females, 8 Het females, 8 KO females).