Figure 1. Shank3-KO animals initially consume fewer crickets than wild-type littermates and improve at hunting more slowly. A, Schematic of recording setup for hunting sessions. Camera records behavior of mouse and cricket in a given session. B, Experiment timeline whereby animals are habituated for 2 d in advance of hunting in littermate pairs. Food deprivation happens overnight the second night before beginning hunting. C, Representative traces of mouse and cricket position during hunting trials by naive and experienced animals, in which the black trace corresponds to cricket position and the colored line corresponds to the mouse position. D, Number of live crickets captured per session. Stats for WT versus KO, Number of crickets captured per day, day 1 p = 0.042, day 2 p = 0.052, day 3 p = 0.142 (Wilcoxon). Open dots are individual observations, filled dots represent averages across multiple sessions, and error bars represent SE. E, Fraction of cricket trials concluding in successful capture per session. Stats for WT versus KO, Capture probability, day 1 p = 0.046, day 2 p = 0.137, day 3 p = 0.588 (Wilcoxon). F, Number of dead crickets consumed by naive mice in a single control set, p = 0.079 (Wilcoxon). Without training, Shank3 KO mice consume fewer dead crickets than wild-type mice, suggesting there is a Shank3 KO deficit in recognizing the crickets as food or a willingness or ability to eat them. G, Mass of sugary cereal consumed in a single control session by naive mice, p = 0.062 (t test). H, Median mouse distance traveled per hunting session, across multiple live cricket trials, day 1 p = 0.145, day 2 p = 0.156, day 3 p = 0.168, day 4 p = 0.205, day 5 p = 0.016 (t test). After training, wild-type mice traveled less distance to capture crickets compared with Shank3 KO mice. I, Median time to capture per hunting session, across multiple live cricket trials. Maximum time was plotted as 10,000 s in the case that animals did not capture any crickets during their allotted 3 h. Stats for WT versus KO, Time to capture, by session, day 1 p = 0.023, day 2 p = 0.055, day 3 p = 0.127, day 4 p = 0.216, day 5 p = 0.042. After training, wild-type mice were slightly faster than Shank3 KO mice. J, Time for naive mice to capture a dead cricket in a single control set, median by session p = 0.035 (t test). Shank3 KO mice took substantially longer time to eat dead crickets than wild-type mice, even when the crickets were not moving. D, E, H, I, WT males N: 4; WT females N: 4; KO males N: 7; KO females N: 3; total: 18. F, G, J, WT males N: 7; WT females N: 3; KO males N: 5; KO females N: 3; total: 18.