Authors:

Caroline Powell

Date Created:

Not specified

Course Title:

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About Paper:

Fragile X Syndrome (FX), the most common genetic form of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental condition that causes mild to severe learning impairments, deficits in social communication, and mood instability. Additionally, cases of FX have been shown to have impaired working memory, however, the underlying mechanism causing this impairment remains unknown. We focused on whether low-frequency theta (4-8 Hz) oscillations, a frequency band diminished in FX, is a primary mechanism for working memory in the context of behavior. To determine this, we utilized a go/no-go visual discrimination task, a task commonly used to measure inhibitory control in ASD. Water restricted, head-fixed Fmr1 knockout mice, and naive wild-type mice (as a control), were trained on the task. When they showed proper discrimination, we took in-vivo electrophysiological recordings to measure the local field potentials (LFPs) and single-unit responses for the different stimuli-reward pairings. Our results will better examine how the theta oscillations are utilized during memory encoding and recall. Furthermore, the results from this study will better clarify the learning deficits present in ASDs, such as sensory processing issues and weak executive control, and could provide a new avenue for potential future therapy. Keywords: Fragile X Syndrome; Theta Oscillations; Visual Cortex; Go/No-Go Task

Source:

Purdue University / 2024

Topics:

No topics listed

Co-authors:

Caroline Powell