<i>Fmr1</i> KO mice display normal learning on the gap cross assay at shorter gap distances but impaired learning at longer whisker-dependent distances.

<p>(A) The percent successful crosses averaged across the first six sessions and subsequent six sessions across gap distances ranging from 3.0 cm to 6.0 cm for both wild-type mice (black lines, n = 6) and <i>Fmr1</i> KO mice (blue lines, n = 9). For each distance, the line marker on the <i>left</i> is the average success rate of the first six sessions and the connected line marker on the <i>right</i> is the average success rate of the subsequent six sessions. Error bars represent standard error of the mean. (B) At shorter ‘nose’ distances, both wild-type (WT) and Fmr1 KO mice (KO) improve to a greater percentage of successful crosses between the average of the first six sessions (WT, grey, KO light blue) and the last six sessions (WT, black, KO dark blue). This improvement is statistically significant (WT, p = .007; n = 6; KO, p<.001, n = 9; WT; two-way ANOVA) (C) At whisker-dependent distances, wild-type (WT) improve between early sessions (grey line) and subsequent sessions (black line) despite the lower overall success rate at increasing gap distances. However, KO mice do not display significant improvement between early sessions (light blue line) and later sessions (dark blue line) (WT, p = .002, n = 6, KO, p = .14; n = 9, two-way ANOVA). (D) Average improvement for WT and KO mice at shorter ‘nose’ distances and longer ‘whisker’ distances. WT mice display significantly greater improvement at whisker-dependent distances that KO mice (p = .02, two-tailed t-test).