Fig. 7

Oxytocin treatment increases social novelty and decreases repetitive behaviors in SCGN-deficiency mice. a Schematic of social novelty recognition (three-chamber) test. Time spent interacting with S1(a familiar mouse) or S2 (a novel mouse) is shown for each genotype when injected with Control-shRNA EGFP and Scgn-shRNA EGFP AAV virus in PVN. b Representative heatmaps showing the duration and location of the shControl and shScgn mice during the 10 min social novelty recognition test. Warmer colors (red) indicate a greater amount of time spent exploring by the mice. shControl: PVN Control-shRNA injection mouse. shScgn: PVN Scgn-shRNA injection mouse. DMSO: 0.1% DMSO administration. OXT: 1 mg/kg Oxytocin administration. S1: a familiar mouse. S2: a novel mouse. c Bar chart showing chamber times spending interacted with S1 or a novel mouse S2 of shControl and shScgn mouse. S1: a familiar mouse. center: center region in chamber. S2: a novel mouse. shScgn: PVN Scgn-shRNA injection mouse. DMSO: 0.1% DMSO administration. OXT: 1 mg/kg Oxytocin administration. S1: a familiar mouse. S2: a novel mouse. P-values were calculated using one-way ANOVA, Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. ***p < 0.001, *p < 0.05. ns not significant. d Bar chart showing sniffing times spending with S1 or S2 of shControl and shScgn mouse. DMSO: 0.1% DMSO-treated. OXT: 1 mg/kg Oxytocin-treated. P-values were calculated using one-way ANOVA, Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. ***p < 0.001, *p < 0.05. e Statistics of the social preference index (S2-S1/total) from chamber time in c. P-values were calculated using t-test. ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01. (f) Statistics of the social preference index (S2-S1/total) from sniffing time in d. P-values were calculated using t-test. ***p < 0.001. g Statistics of marbles burying numbers in shControl and shScgn mice treated with DMSO or OXT. The data are presented as the mean ± SD. n = 12. ***p < 0.001. ns not significant. h Statistics of self-grooming times in shControl and shScgn mice treated with DMSO or OXT. The data were presented as the mean ± SD. n = 12. ***p < 0.001. ns not significant