Fig. 1.

Schematic illustration of the experimental timeline (A) and treatment groups (B). Male voles were pair-housed with their female partners for 14 days. Thereafter, they were assigned into one of the two experimental groups where they experienced 60-mins immobilization stress (IMO) in a restraint tube either alone (Alone) or with their female partner in the cage (Partner). Females were either with a restraint tube containing their stressed male partner (Partner) or with an empty restraint tube (Empty). Following the IMO stress, both males and their female partners recovered individually for 5 min, and then underwent a 5-min elevated plus maze (EPM) test. Thereafter, their blood and brains were collected immediately. Created with BioRender.com.