Behavioral characterization of <i>Del-Dup</i> cohorts.

<p><b>(A)</b> Circadian activity test. Graphs plot the spontaneous ambulatory activity (count) and the vertical activity/rears (count) during dark and light phases. Del/+ mice showed reduced ambulatory activity during the dark phase (F_(3,46) = 5.791, <i>P</i> = 0.002; <i>Del/+</i> vs wt: <i>P</i> = 0.002) and the light phase (F_(3,46) = 4.260, <i>P</i> = 0.010; <i>Del/+</i> vs wt: <i>P</i> = 0.006) as well as reduced rearing behavior during the light phase (H_{(3, 46)} = 12.861, <i>P</i> = 0.005; <i>Del/+</i> vs wt: <i>P</i> = 0.002) <b>(B)</b> Open field test. Distance travelled (m), and vertical activity/rears (count) over 30 min of testing. <b>(C)</b> Novel object recognition test. Discrimination index was calculated as the ratio of time spent exploring the novel object vs the total time for object sniffing in the choice trial after a 3 h retention delay. The dashed line denotes a chance level of 50% (F_(3,43) = 3.081, <i>P</i> = 0.037; <i>Del/+</i> vs wt: <i>P</i> = 0.040). <b>(D)</b> Fear conditioning test. Plots represent the percentage of time spent freezing during test sessions. The 6-min context session was run 24 h after conditioning. The 8-min cue session was performed 5 h after the context session. A sequence of 2-min without cue and 2 min with light/auditory conditioning stimulus was repeated twice. <b>(E)</b> Cued fear extinction. Independent group of <i>Del /+</i> and <i>Dup/+</i> mutant mice with their respective wt control littermates were evaluated for cued fear extinction. Immobility was increased in <i>Dup/+</i> compared to control while it was decreased in the <i>Del/+</i> carriers during the two test periods for extinction (Ext1 (24 h) and Ext2 (48 h)). After one week the cued fear retrieval was observed in the <i>Dup/+</i> mice compared to their wt littermates whereas it was absent in the <i>Del/+</i> compared to their control. <b>(F-G)</b> Three-chamber sociability test. <b>(F)</b> Exploration time (s) of the first congener in the social interest session (session 1) and total exploration time of familiar and novel congeners in the social discrimination session (session 2). No delay was used between the two sessions. <b>(G)</b> Discrimination index was calculated as the ratio of time spent exploring the novel congener vs the familiar one. Data are represented as the mean ± s.e.m. Cohort used included 18 <i>Del/+</i>, 24 wt, 11 <i>Del/Dup</i>, and 11 <i>Dup/+</i> animals. <i>Post hoc</i> Tukey's and Mann Whitney U tests were performed following significant results in one-way ANOVA or Kruskal Wallis analysis, respectively. *<i>P</i> < 0.05 vs wt, **<i>P</i> < 0.01 vs wt, ***<i>P</i> < 0.001 vs wt, ^# <i>P</i> < 0.05 vs all other groups.