Fig. 4.

Measurement of social memory after GCR exposure. Beginning at 45 days post exposure (GCR - 0, 15, 50 cGy) animals were tested for social memory deficits by the three-chamber social approach task. In the social memory part of this task the test animal is exposed to a familiar mouse enclosed in a cage (from sociability part) or a novel mouse enclosed in a cage (non-aggressive, age-sex matched) for five minutes. Social memory is measured by a preference to spend time with the novel mouse over the familiar mouse standardized to sex-matched 0 cGy group. (A) Male mice exposed to 50 cGy of GCR had significant impairments in social memory when compared to the 15 cGy group (F = 3.99; p = 0.02). (B) GCR exposure did not impact sociability in the female cohorts. One-way ANOVA did not reveal any significant differences between groups. Interaction times standardized to sex-matched 0 cGy group. (C) Males- Total interaction time with both the novel and familiar mouse. One-way ANOVA did not reveal any significant differences between groups. (D) Females- Total interaction time with both the novel and familiar mouse. One-way ANOVA did not reveal any significant differences between groups. Individual animal scores represented in dots, lines depict group mean and SEM. *p < 0.05. Males n = 14–15; Females n = 16–17.