Our project aims to characterize a cardiometabolic animal model of Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF) in terms of behavior and cognitive function and to evaluate the impact of empagliflozin, an SGLT2 inhibitor used in HFpEF treatment. We used a well-accepted animal model of HFpEF, mimicking its metabolic and cardiovascular features – ZSF1‐Obese and ZSF1‐Lean rats as corresponding controls. At the first signs of diastolic dysfunction, half of the ZSF1- Obese and Lean rats were randomly assigned to treatment with empagliflozin administered through diet. 24-week-old animals were submitted to the Open-field, Elevated Plus Maze, Novel Object Recognition (NOR), and Sociability tests to assess anxiety, locomotor activity, memory, and sociability behavior. ZSF1-Obese groups traveled less distances with lower velocity. Empagliflozin appeared not to influence these parameters. In the open-field test, the percentage of time spent in the center did not differ between groups. ZSF1- Lean and Obese animals spent similar percentages of time in the center, open- and closed-arms of the elevated plus maze. Preliminary results show ZSF1-Obese animals tended to have worse discrimination index than ZSF1-Lean rats in NOR performed at 1 hour and 72 hours. All groups showed higher interest in a social target in comparison to an inanimate object. However, ZSF1-Obese rats tended to have lower sociability index. Locomotor activity is impaired in ZSF1-Obese animals, and our preliminary results could not show a significant difference in empagliflozin-treated rats tested behavior in comparison to non-treated. Further experiments are being carried on to characterize this HFpEF model better.