In the B6JJcl group, lactating females showed a lower percentage of sucrose preference than nulliparous and nonlactating females, although the differences failed to reach significance after Bonferroni correction ( p = 0.0088 and p = 0.0228, respectively).
The time spent in closed arms was also higher in lactating females than in nonlactating females ( p = 0.0316), which may be partially dependent on strain, especially the CAJcl substrain, as indicated by a marginally significant strain × reproductive state interaction ( F 6,154 = 2.06, p = 0.0607).
Although lactating females showed lower sucrose preference than nulliparous females, the result failed to reach statistical significance in this experiment.
Lactating BALB/cAJcl and C57BL/6JJcl females exhibited decreased sucrose preference or anhedonia-like behavior compared with nulliparous and nonlactating females, although these results did not reach statistical significance after correction for multiple testing.