Fig. 3

NSPA-KO mice have impaired hippocampal-memory-dependent tasks. a Open field test (novel environment) shows that WT and NSPA-KO mice have similar locomotor activity, as measured by the total distance moved, and also spent similar time in the center region (mean ± SEM; n = 10 mice per group; n.s, non-statistical differences, t-test). b Novel recognition (NOR) task comprising sample (10 min), delay (4 h), and choice (10 min) phases. In the scheme, A1 and A2 represent identical objects and B1 is a novel object. Preference index is the time spent with object divided by total exploration time. WT mice preferentially explored the novel object whereas NSPA-KO mice spent similar times in each object (mean ± SEM; n = 10 mice per group; ****P < 0.0001 versus WT mice by one-way ANOVA, followed by Bonferroni post hoc test). c Memory flexibility test shows a higher number of trials required by NSPA-KO compared with WT mice to meet criterion (mean ± SEM; n = 6 mice per group; ***P < 0.001 t-test). d Morris water maze test with visible platform indicates similar vision capability and general health of WT and NSPA-KO mice