Fig. 3

Mean (± SEM) doublecortin (DCX) expression in the dorsal hippocampus (A) and ventral hippocampus (B) of male and female adolescent, young adult, and middle-aged rats that underwent the cognitive bias procedure with or without footshocks (no-shock controls). Representative images of DCX expressing cells in the granule cell layer of the dorsal and ventral hippocampus of adolescent, young adult, and middle-aged rats (C). DCX expression is higher in adolescents compared to adults regardless of sex, and adolescent males have higher DCX expression compared to adolescent females regardless of region. Furthermore, adolescents and young adults have higher DCX expression after cognitive bias testing compared to no-shock controls regardless of region. Adolescent and young adult rats also have higher DCX expression in the dorsal hippocampus compared to the ventral hippocampus. *indicates p’s < 0.02. n = 5–6 for no-shock controls, n = 7–11 for test rats. SEM = standard error of the mean