DISC1 is an established susceptibility gene for schizophrenia. To gain insight on the neural mechanisms responsible for hippocampal deficits in schizophrenia, we sought to characterize place cell activity and theta rhythm in our Disc1-L100P mouse strain that we have previously shown to express deficits in spatial working memory. Our findings suggest that the rate code of place cells is intact. We found that Disc1-L100P mice have deficits in theta rhythm, increased neural noise, and lower levels of PV+ interneurons in the hippocampus. Our findings are supportive of impaired temporal coding in Disc1-L100P place cells. We found that Disc1-L100P place cell waveforms were broader than those of wild-type mice and putative interneuron waveforms were narrower. These findings suggest that ion-channel function and expression in the hippocampus is altered in Disc1-L100P mice. In schizophrenic subjects deficits in working memory are associated with aberrant oscillatory activity, increased noise, and lower PV+ interneuron expression.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/31356 |
| Date | 15 December 2011 |
| Creators | Mesbah-Oskui, Bahar |
| Contributors | Roder, John C. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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