Mice with exonic RELN deletion identified from a patient with schizophrenia have impaired visual discrimination learning and reversal learning in touchscreen operant tasks

In this study, cognitive function in Reln-del mice was assessed using touchscreen-based visual discrimination (VD) and reversal learning (RL) tasks. Reln-del mice showed normal learning in the simple VD task, but the learning was delayed in the complex VD task as compared to their wild-type (WT) littermates. In the RL task, sessions were divided into early perseverative phase (sessions with <50% correct) and later learning phase (sessions with ≥50% correct). Reln-del mice showed normal perseveration but impaired relearning ability in both simple RL and complex RL task as compared to WT mice. These results suggest that Reln-del mice have impaired learning ability, but the behavioral flexibility is unaffected. Overall, the observed behavioral abnormalities in Reln-del mice suggest that this mouse model is a useful preclinical tool for investigating the neurobiological mechanism underlying cognitive impairments in schizophrenia and a therapeutic strategy.PMID:34499931 | DOI:10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113569

Source: Behavioural Brain Research - September 9, 2021 Category: Neurology Authors: Jingzhu Liao Geyao Dong Bolati Wulaer Masahito Sawahata Hiroyuki Mizoguchi Daisuke Mori Norio Ozaki Toshitaka Nabeshima Taku Nagai Kiyofumi Yamada Source Type: research