Fig. 8

Tph2 deficiency in rats causes a reduction in maternal preference, which is emphasized through communal nesting (CN), as compared to standard nesting (SN). (A) Overview of the maternal preference test to close the communicative loop between mother and pup and to compare maternal preferences between Tph2^−/− (KO) rat pups and Tph2^+/+ (WT) littermate controls. (B) Time spent by the mother in proximity to WT versus KO rat pups. Of note, the individual data points of an individual WT rat pup and an individual KO rat pup are connected by a line in order to indicate that the two connected rat pups were simultaneously exposed to their mother. Mothers were always exposed to their own pups. SN = standard nesting (blue), CN = communal nesting (orange). Data are expressed as mean ± SEM. Effect of pup genotype: *p < .05. N(SN) = 12 WT-KO pairs, N(CN) = 12 WT-KO pairs