Fig. 5

Nesting ability and cognitive function assessed in the nine-arm radial maze [72, 73]. a(A) Representative images of nest created from the Nestlet in Sham and BCAS group. a(B) Boxplot showing Nestlet score at baseline level and post operation in each group. a(C, D) Histograms showing height of the nest (C) and % used Nestlet (D) at baseline level and post operation in each group. BCAS-std subgroup had impaired nesting ability compared to baseline level (*P < 0.05). EE reversed impaired nesting ability induced by BCAS, especially by limited EE (BCAS-3 h) (a(B)). b(A, B), Histograms showing number of arm entries before first repeat in all sham and all BCAS (A) as well as number of arm entries before first repeat of each subgroup (B) assessed in the nine-arm radial maze. Every consecutive 10 sessions and overall 20 sessions were averaged. b(A) All sham completed more arm entries before first repeat, compared with all BCAS in sessions 1–10, sessions 11–20 and sessions 1–20 (*P < 0.01 vs sham; †P < 0.01 vs sham; ‡P < 0.01 vs sham). b(B) Between BCAS subgroup, BCAS-3 h completed more arm entries compared with BCAS-std and BCAS-full in sessions 1–10, sessions 11–20 and sessions 1–20. Sham-std, n = 11; Sham-3 h, n = 11; Sham-full, n = 11; BCAS-std, n = 13, BCAS-3 h, n = 10; BCAS-full, n = 12