Sexually dimorphic patterns in electroencephalography power spectrum and autism-related behaviors in a rat model of fragile X syndrome.

Sexually dimorphic patterns in electroencephalography power spectrum and autism-related behaviors in a rat model of fragile X syndrome. Neurobiol Dis. 2020 Oct 05;:105118 Authors: Wong H, Hooper AWM, Niibori Y, Lee SJ, Hategan LA, Zhang L, Karumuthil-Melethil S, Till SM, Kind PC, Danos O, Bruder JT, Hampson DR Abstract Fragile X syndrome (FXS), a neurodevelopmental disorder with autistic features, is caused by the loss of the fragile X mental retardation protein. Sex-specific differences in the clinical profile have been observed in FXS patients, but few studies have directly compared males and females in rodent models of FXS. To address this, we performed electroencephalography (EEG) recordings and a battery of autism-related behavioral tasks on juvenile and young adult Fmr1 knockout (KO) rats. EEG analysis demonstrated that compared to wild-type, male Fmr1 KO rats showed an increase in gamma frequency band power in the frontal cortex during the sleep-like immobile state, and both male and female KO rats failed to show an increase in delta frequency power in the sleep-like state, as observed in wild-type rats. Previous studies of EEG profiles in FXS subjects also reported abnormally increased gamma frequency band power, highlighting this parameter as a potential translatable biomarker. Both male and female Fmr1 KO rats displayed reduced exploratory behaviors in the center zone of the open field test, and increased distance travelled...
Source: Neurobiology of Disease - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Neurobiol Dis Source Type: research