Sof 815

Behavioral testing was performed in an air-conditioned room (temperature 21 ± 1°C and relative humidity 60 ± 10%) adjacent to the housing room. Whilst Barnes maze test was conducted under bright light (85 lux), all other tests were conducted under dim light (10 lux). With respect to behavioral outcomes, Pre-pulse inhibition (PPI), and Barnes maze were quantified by automated software (SOF-815, med associates Inc., St Albans, VT, United States of America for PPI and “The EthoVision,” Noldus, Wageningen, the Netherlands, for Barnes maze) which by definition is blind to treatments. Behavioral outcomes of Novel Object Recognition (NOR) task were quantified by an operator blinded to the allocation of the experimental group through a tracking software (“The Observer XT,” Noldus, Wageningen, the Netherlands). Then, for T-maze and glucose tolerance test, the experimenter conducting the test received the mouse from another experimenter who guaranteed blinding. For the attentional set-shifting task and maternal behavior, test blinding was not possible.

The apparatus (Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, USA), consisting of an acoustic stimulator (ANL-925, Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, USA) and a platform with a transducer amplifier (PHM-250-60, Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, USA), was positioned in a foam-lined isolation chamber (ENV-018S, Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, USA), defined as startle chamber. Experimental data were acquired automatically through dedicated software (SOF-815, Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, USA). The procedure adopted in this study, consisting of a habituation phase followed by a test phase on the following day, has been detailed in [32 (link)]. Pre-pulse inhibition was computed as the percentage of reduction of startle to the pre-pulse + pulse trials compared to the pulse alone trial 1 − (startle_{pre-pulse+pulse}/startle_{pulse alone}).

The apparatus is constituted by a foam-lined isolation chamber (ENV-018S, Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, United States of America), which presents an acoustic stimulator (ANL-925, Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, United States of America) and a platform with a transducer amplifier (PHM-250-60, Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, United States of America). Inside the chamber, red light and a fan guaranteed dimmer light and ventilation. The mouse was placed in a perforated compartment above the platform. Data were recorded through dedicated software (SOF-815, Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, United States of America).