Exposure to Patterned Auditory Stimuli during Acute Stress Prevents Despair-Like Behavior in Adult Mice That Were Previously Housed in an Enriched Environment in Combination with Auditory Stimuli

Figure 1

Experimental design and neuronal activation in the auditory cortex. (a) Mice were housed for 10 days under standard conditions. Next, rodents were exposed to PAS during six minutes and sacrificed two hours after PAS exposure to analyze Arc expression in the auditory cortex (AuCx). (b) Representative images of coronal sections within the AuCx are shown. High-power image exhibits the presence of Arc-labeled cells in the AuCx. Scale bars in (b) are equal to 150 and 50 μm. (c) Cellular quantification shows an increase in number of Arc-positive cells in the AuCx after PAS exposure. Data represent the mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). The unpaired Student -test was used to compare both groups. The asterisk in (c) is equal to 0.049. per group.

(a) Experimental design

(b) Arc-labeling

(c) Cellular quantification