Figure 8: SD-Nrxn1^tm1Sage KO juveniles have a decreased latency to display nurturing behavior in a pup sensitization paradigm.

There was no effect of sex on the nurturing behavior of SD-Nrxn1^tm1Sage WT, Het or KO juveniles toward neonatal pups, therefore data for males and females were combined. (A) Raster plot of daily occurrence of nurturing behavior toward unfamiliar pups over the 14 day test period. The presence of nurturing behavior, scored at the end of a daily 2 hr exposure to pups, is indicated with filled squares in red (for female test rats) or blue (for male test rats). White squares indicate no nurturing behavior was observed at the end of the 2 hr pup exposure period on that day. Each row tabulates daily observations for an individual test rat over the 14 day test period. The top block tabulates WT rats (5 males/5 females), the middle block tabulates Het rats (6 males/6 females) and the bottom block tabulates KO rats (6 males/6 females). Note that 1 KO and 2 Het males did not demonstrate pup-directed nurturing behavior on any of the 14 test days. (B) Onset of nurturing behavior, scored as the day on which juveniles first displayed nurturing behavior toward unfamiliar pups. Juvenile KO males and females nested pups earlier than WT or Het juveniles. 3 male rats that did not exhibit nurturing behavior on any of the 14 test days were assigned a score of 15 for nurturing onset. ANOVA with Tukey’s posthoc, * = p < 0.05. (C) The total number of days SD-Nrxn1^tm1Sage juvenile rats exhibited nurturing behavior throughout the 15 days of exposure to pups. There was no difference in total days nurturing among genotypes. Red = females, blue = males (N = 5 WT Males, 6 Het males, 6 KO males, 5 WT females, 6 Het females, 6 KO females).