Postnatal environment affects auditory development and sensorimotor gating in a rat model for autism spectrum disorder.

ABSTRACT: The homozygous Cntnap2 knockout (KO) rat is a well-established genetic model for neurodevelopmental disorders, exhibiting core features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), including impaired sensory processing and sensorimotor gating. Recent findings indicate that the severity of ASD-like phenotypes in Cntnap2 KO offspring is influenced by the parental genotype, with more pronounced impairments observed in KO rats bred from homozygous pairs compared to heterozygous pairs (Cntnap2 HET). However, it is unclear to what extent this is due to in utero versus postnatal effects. We, therefore, investigated how early postnatal environmental factors, shaped by differences in parental and littermate genotypes, influence auditory processing and sensorimotor gating in Cnt

SUBMITTER: Doornaert EE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11933038 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature