Fig. 1

Experimental procedures. At ≈ 21 months of age, mice were subjected to i.c.v. injections of mu-p75-saporin or saline (sham lesion) to selectively deplete the forebrain cholinergic system. Two weeks after lesion, an 8-week oral supplementation (by gavage) with n-3 PUFA or olive oil began. After the first 4 weeks of dietary supplementation, the animals were behaviorally evaluated by means of a testing battery (elevated plus maze, EPM; novel object recognition task, NORT; social interactions test, SIT; marble burying test, MBT; Porsolt test, PT) lasting 4 weeks. At the end of testing, the mice were sacrificed, and brains collected for morphological, biochemical, and lipid analyses