Fig. 3

Sex differences in ventral hippocampal dendritic spine density are estrous stage-dependent. A Representative photomicrographs of dendritic spine density (Golgi staining, n = 5 animals/group; scale bar: 10 μm) in the ventral hippocampus of diestrus females, proestrus females, and males are shown (left; adapted from Jaric et al. [5]) along with the quantification of the data (right) for the three groups (top; reproduced from [5]) as well as the comparison between males and merged females (bottom). B Density distribution plots representing normal distributions of dendritic spine density for merged females compared to males (top) and males compared to proestrus and diestrus females (bottom). The degree of overlap between the distributions is given below each plot. Box plots (box, 1st–3rd quartile; horizontal line, median; whiskers, 1.5 × IQR); ***P < 0.001; one-way ANOVA with the Tukey’s post hoc test (top); Welch Two-sample T-test (bottom). Die (light pink), diestrus; Pro (purple), proestrus; Female (red), mixed females; Male (blue), males