Figure 4.

Assessing anxiety-like swim behavior in PFOS-exposed larvae. (A) Larval swim behavior during a 30-min light/dark behavioral assay was used to determine time spent in the well’s center (crossing center: less anxious) vs. time spent along the well’s edge (center avoidance: more anxious). (B) Heat maps were generated to indicate mobile (blue) vs. stationary (red) swim activity within the well, as well as the zones traversed within the well. (C) Quantification of the time that 3-dpf 7μM, 14μM, or 28μM PFOS-treated larvae spent in the center of the well relative to control-treated larvae. Images are of representative heat maps from each treatment group. (D) Quantification of the time that 5-dpf 7μM or 14μM PFOS-treated larvae spent in the center of the well relative to control-treated larvae. Images are of representative heat maps from each treatment group. n=76–101 fish per group. *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ****p<0.0001. Error bars represent SEM. See Excel Table S1 for additional statistical details. Note: dpf, days postfertilization; PFOS, perfluorooctane sulfonate; SEM, standard error of the mean.