News Finding: "Because an overwhelming reaction to a slight sound or caress, or hyperarousal to sensory stimuli, could be common to different types of autism, and not just FXS," he said.
Paper Finding: Second, cell pairs located within 100 µm of one another displayed the largest differences in pair-wise correlation coefficients between P9-11 (n = 12 mice) and P14-16 (n = 9 mice), compared with cells farther apart (mean difference = 0.3, P < 0.0001 for cells <100 µm apart, 0.9, P < 0.0001 for cells 100-200 µm apart, 0.067, P = 0.0598 for cells >200 µm apart; two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni corrected P values; Fig.
News Context: The next step, said Portera-Cailliau, is to explore whether fragile X mice indeed exhibit exaggerated responses to sensory stimuli. "Because an overwhelming reaction to a slight sound or caress, or hyperarousal to sensory stimuli, could be common to different types of autism, and not just FXS," he said. "If hyperexcitability is the brain network basis for these symptoms, then reducing neuronal excitability with certain drugs that modulate inhibition could be of therapeutic value in these devastating neurodevelopmental disorders."
Paper Context: First, cortical neurons in unanesthetized wild-type mice showed a higher degree of synchrony in the transient elevations of intracellular calcium at P9-11 than at P14-16 or P30-40 ( Fig. Second, cell pairs located within 100 µm of one another displayed the largest differences in pair-wise correlation coefficients between P9-11 (n = 12 mice) and P14-16 (n = 9 mice), compared with cells farther apart (mean difference = 0.3, P < 0.0001 for cells <100 µm apart, 0.9, P < 0.0001 for cells 100-200 µm apart, 0.067, P = 0.0598 for cells >200 µm apart; two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni corrected P values; Fig. When we quantified pair-wise correlation coefficients for cells within 100 µm, we found a statistically significant age-dependent decrease in network synchrony for both wild-type and Fmr1 −/− mice (two-way unequal variance ANOVA, P < 0.01 for both genotypes; n = 12, 9, 8 wild-type mice at P9-11, P14-16 and P30-40, respectively, and n = 9, 10, 8 Fmr1 −/− mice at P9-11, P14-16 and P30-40, respectively; Fig.