Fig. 2. C-LTMR impairment via Ca_v3.2 deletion reduces social behaviors.

(A) In the three-chamber social preference test, Ca_v3.2^Nav1.8cKO mice had a decreased preference toward a stranger mouse in comparison to control Ca_v3.2^GFP-floxKI littermates. Unpaired t test P < 0.001: Ca_v3.2^GFP-floxKI, n = 14 (light green circles); Ca_v3.2^Nav1.8cKO, n = 9 (open gray circles). (B) Live Mouse Tracker (LMT) schematic description. Each group of mice includes two Ca_v3.2^GFP-floxKI and two Ca_v3.2^Nav1.8cKO mice. The experiment was performed over a 3-day period, and each behavior was analyzed from the dark (“active”) phase of the light cycle. (C) Duration and the number of all contacts automatically extracted by the LMT of Ca_v3.2^GFP-floxKI (light green circles; n = 10) and Ca_v3.2^Nav1.8cKO (open gray circles; n = 10). Sum of all the events for the three nights. Unpaired t test corrected for multiple comparisons using the Holm-Sidak method. Adjusted P value: *P = 0.01969. (D) LMT indexes of Ca_v3.2^GFP-floxKI (light green circles; n = 10) and Ca_v3.2^Nav1.8cKO (open gray circles; n = 10) for the duration and the number of all contacts. Sum of all the events for the three nights. Unpaired t test corrected for multiple comparisons using the Holm-Sidak method. Adjusted P value: *P = 0.0206. (E) Duration of dyadic interactions occurring in the LMT: reciprocal, unilateral, and passive interactions of Ca_v3.2^GFP-floxKI (light green circles; n = 10) and Ca_v3.2^Nav1.8cKO (open gray circles; n = 10; **P = 0.0096). (F) LMT indexes for dyadic interactions computed for Ca_v3.2^GFP-floxKI (light green circles; n = 10) and Ca_v3.2^Nav1.8cKO (open gray circles; n = 10) mice. The duration of events for the three dark phases was summed for statistical analysis. Two-way ANOVA with Sidak post hoc test *P = 0.028 and ****P = 0.0096. ANOVA results are indicated below the panel title, and full results are presented in table S1.