Acute neurologic status of rats in the study
| Outcome | Group | N | Righting reflex (s) | Apnea (s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Behavior (adolescence) | Sham | 16 | 69 ± 9 | NA |
| Injured | 20 | 284 ± 40* | 10 ± 2 | |
| Behavior sham | 12 | 70 ± 11 | NA | |
| (Adult) injured | 12 | 151 ± 16* | 13 ± 1 | |
| Behavior (OXT) | Sham + saline | 9 | 97 ± 24 | NA |
| Sham + OXT 1× | 7 | 119 ± 22 | NA | |
| Sham + OXT 3× | 8 | 79 ± 15 | NA | |
| Injured + saline | 10 | 301 ± 32* | 5 ± 1 | |
| Injured+OXT 1× | 7 | 306 ± 99* | 6 ± 3 | |
| Injured+OXT 3× | 10 | 320 ± 50* | 16 ± 4* |
Eleven-day-old male and female rat pups were randomly assigned to either sham-injured or brain-injured groups. Sham-injured and brain-injured rats were randomly assigned to receive intranasal administration of 20 μg (1×) or 60 μg (3×) OXT. Subsets of the animals tested in the behavioral assays were randomly assigned to be euthanized for mRNA measurements and whole-cell patch clamp electrophysiology. Latency to regain righting reflex and times of apnea were recorded as described in Materials and Methods; *p < 0.05 compared with sham-injured rats.