Figure 2.

Behavioral Deficits after neonatal HI and correlation with deficits in hippocampal PV⁺ INs. (A) HI-injured mice spent less time in the center of the open field (OF) arena (discontinued line rectangle) compared to sham mice. (B) Similarly, HI-injured mice explores the novel arm (previously blocked, discontinued line rectangle) for longer % time after being opened in the Y-maze phase 2 (YM). (C) Following the swap of objects (discontinued line circles) during the object location task (OLT) phase 2, the exploratory preference (EP) for non-familiar location is decreased in HI-injured mice. Representative Anymaze Software tracings for OF (A₁) and YM (B₁) along with heatmap for OLT (more time = brighter/ red, less time = darker/ blue) (C₁) are shown. Quantifications for OF (A₂), YM (B₂), and OLT (C₂) are shown as hybrid box and whiskers with dot plots. *, p < 0.05 (Dunn-Bonferroni post-hoc test for Kruskal Wallis- ANOVA). The number of PV⁺ INs in the dorsal hippocampus directly correlated with decreased anxiety-like behavior in OF (A₃) and improved working spatial memory in YM (B₃) and OLT (C₃), using Spearman Rho correlation test.