Sensorimotor tests
Sylics offers tests to assess sensorimotor gating in mice.
Prepulse inhibition
A startle reflex in response to an intense acoustic stimulus is inhibited when a barely detectable pulse precedes the startle stimulus by 30-500 milliseconds. This phenomenon is called prepulse inhibition (PPI) of a startle response. PPI is an automatic early-stage gating process contributing to the ability to focus attention, which is disrupted in several neuropsychiatric disorders like schizophrenia. We detected sensorimotor gating deficits in mice lacking Pcdh9 (Bruining et al 2015), different recombinant inbred strains (Loos et al. 2012) and in the 22q11 mouse model relevant to Schizophrenia.
Startle Response
Rodents and humans show a startle reflex in response to a loud acoustic stimulus. The intensity of the startle response can be affected by sensory-motor dysfunction, as well as hearing deficits. By providing a wide range of acoustic stimuli of varying loudness, and plotting the intensity of the startle response, a startle threshold can be determined that is indicative of hearing abilities of rodents (Loos et al 2012).
Bruining et al (2015) Biol Psychiatry
Genetic Mapping in Mice Reveals the Involvement of Pcdh9 in Long-Term Social and Object Recognition and Sensorimotor Development. Bruining H, Matsui A, Oguro-Ando A, Kahn RS, Van’t Spijker HM, Akkermans G, Stiedl O, van Engeland H, Koopmans B, van Lith HA, Oppelaar H, Tieland L, Nonkes LJ, Yagi T, Kaneko R, Burbach JP, Yamamoto N, Kas MJ. Biol Psychiatry. 2015 Oct 1;78(7):485-95. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.01.017. Epub 2015 Feb 7. PMID: 25802080. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25802080/
Loos et al. (2012) Genes Brain Behav
Independent genetic loci for sensorimotor gating and attentional performance in BXD recombinant inbred strains. Loos M, Staal J, Pattij T; Neuro-BSIK Mouse Phenomics Consortium, Smit AB, Spijker S. Genes Brain Behav. 2012 Mar;11(2):147-56. doi: 10.1111/j.1601-183X.2011.00754.x. Epub 2011 Dec 13. PMID: 22098762. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22098762/
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