Failed stabilization for long-term potentiation in the auditory cortex of FMR1 knockout mice

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 9; no. 8; p. e104691
• Main Authors: Yang, Sungchil, Yang, Sunggu, Park, Jae-Sung, Kirkwood, Alfredo, Bao, Shaowen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 12.08.2014; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Age Factors; Animals; Auditory Cortex - metabolism; Auditory Cortex - pathology; Auditory Cortex - physiopathology; Auditory plasticity; Biology and Life Sciences; Brain; Cortex (auditory); Cortex (somatosensory); Developmental disabilities; Developmental plasticity; FMR1 protein; Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein - genetics; Fragile X syndrome; Hearing loss; Intellectual disabilities; Long-Term Potentiation; Mice; Mice, Knockout; Mutation; Neural plasticity; Neurosciences; Ocular dominance; Physiology; Plasticity; Protein synthesis; Proteins; Receptors, Kainic Acid - metabolism; Rodents; Sensory systems; Synaptic plasticity; Visual cortex; Visual plasticity; California; United States > US; Maryland; Baltimore Maryland
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104691

Fragile X syndrome is a developmental disorder that affects sensory systems. A null mutation of the Fragile X Mental Retardation protein 1 (Fmr1) gene in mice has varied effects on developmental plasticity in different sensory systems, including normal barrel cortical plasticity, altered ocular dominance plasticity and grossly impaired auditory frequency map plasticity. The mutation also has different effects on long-term synaptic plasticity in somatosensory and visual cortical neurons, providing insights on how it may differentially affect the sensory systems. Here we present evidence that long-term potentiation (LTP) is impaired in the developing auditory cortex of the Fmr1 knockout (KO) mice. This impairment of synaptic plasticity is consistent with impaired frequency map plasticity in the Fmr1 KO mouse. Together, these results suggest a potential role of LTP in sensory map plasticity during early sensory development.