Figure 3.

Social preference toward mice showing more grooming depends on functional main olfactory system of observer mice

(A and B) Ablation of the main olfactory epithelia of observer mice via methimazole treatment abolished their social preference toward blue light-stimulated mice (more grooming). (A) Schematic showing the behavioral strategy. (B) Social preference index of observer mice treated with saline (as control) or methimazole (hyposmic group).

(C–E) Methimazole treatment in observer mice reduced their investigation behavior. Quantification of total investigation time (C), number of investigation bouts (D), and investigation duration per bout (E), under the saline and methimazole treatment condition. n = 28 observer mice (14 males and 14 females) in each group. Data are shown as the mean ± SEM. Two-tailed paired Student’s t test: ∗∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001, ∗∗∗∗p < 0.0001, and ns, not significant. Raw data for calculating the social preference index are included in Table S1 and results of statistical analyses in Table S2. See also Figure S4.