Ehrlichman RS, Luminais SN, White SL, Rudnick ND, Ma N, Dow HC, Kreibich AS, Abel T, Brodkin ES, Hahn CG, Siegel SJ. Neuregulin 1 transgenic mice display reduced mismatch negativity, contextual fear conditioning and social interactions.
Brain Res 2009;
1294:116-27. [PMID:
19643092 DOI:
10.1016/j.brainres.2009.07.065]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 104] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2009] [Revised: 07/13/2009] [Accepted: 07/18/2009] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Neuregulin-1 (NRG1) is one of susceptibility genes for schizophrenia and plays critical roles in glutamatergic, dopaminergic and GABAergic signaling. Using mutant mice heterozygous for Nrg1 (Nrg1(+/-)) we studied the effects of Nrg1 signaling on behavioral and electrophysiological measures relevant to schizophrenia.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
Behavior of Nrg1(+/-) mice and their wild type littermates was evaluated using pre-pulse inhibition, contextual fear conditioning, novel object recognition, locomotor, and social choice paradigms. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to assess auditory gating and novel stimulus detection.
RESULTS
Gating of ERPs was unaffected in Nrg1(+/-) mice, but mismatch negativity in response to novel stimuli was attenuated. The Nrg1(+/-) mice exhibited behavioral deficits in contextual fear conditioning and social interactions, while locomotor activity, pre-pulse inhibition and novel object recognition were not impaired.
SUMMARY
Nrg1(+/-) mice had impairments in a subset of behavioral and electrophysiological tasks relevant to the negative/cognitive symptom domains of schizophrenia that are thought to be influenced by glutamatergic and dopaminergic neurotransmission. These mice are a valuable tool for studying endophenotypes of schizophrenia, but highlight that single genes cannot account for the complex pathophysiology of the disorder.
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