Diminished Cortical Excitation and Elevated Inhibition During Perceptual Impairments in a Mouse Model of Autism.

ABSTRACT: Sensory impairments are a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These impairments affect visual perception and have been hypothesized to arise from imbalances in cortical excitatory and inhibitory activity. There is conflicting evidence for this hypothesis from several recent studies of transgenic mouse models of ASD; crucially, none have measured activity from identified excitatory and inhibitory neurons during simultaneous impairments of sensory perception. Here, we directly recorded putative excitatory and inhibitory population spiking in primary visual cortex (V1) while simultaneously measuring visual perceptual behavior in CNTNAP2-/- knockout (KO) mice. We observed quantitative impairments in the speed, accuracy, and contrast sensitivity of visual perception in KO mice. Duri

SUBMITTER: Del Rosario J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8525192 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature