Disruption in Patterning in the Whisker-to-Barrel Cortex Pathway Alters Behavior.

ABSTRACT: Mice use their whiskers to convey sensory information, navigate, and explore their environment. We investigated the behavioral impact of the disruption of somatotopic patterning along the whisker-to-barrel pathway utilizing two mouse models: Barrelless (BRL) mice, an adenylyl cyclase 1 variation, in which somatotopic patterning is absent in the barrel cortex, and Prrxl1^-/- mice, a genetic knockout in which patterning is disrupted along the entire lemniscal pathway. A textured novel object recognition test was conducted to investigate whisker-dependent discriminatory behavior, and an open field test was conducted to investigate exploratory behavior. Results were compared to an outbred strain (CD-1) and demonstrated that BRL mice were able to discriminate, whereas Prrxl1^-/-</

SUBMITTER: Lutchman JMF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12637536 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature