Maternal Fmr1 deficiency dysregulates offspring sociability and oxytocinergic signaling in the VTA
Bojana Zupan, Daniel Dunn, Emily Tincher, Mara Russell, Benjamin Kheyfets, Sloane Boukobza, Gaby Coste, Bibi Sulaman, John Kee, Kevin Newhall · FENS Forum 2024
Impaired social interaction is a core dimension of developmental disorders, including Fragile X Syndrome (FXS). The mouse model of FXS displays abnormal sociability and our research shows that maternal Fmr1 deficiency is sufficient to induce this phenotype. Specifically, maternal Fmr1 haploinsufficiency induces hypersociability in her wild-type (WT) male offspring, indicating developmental sensitivity to maternal FMRP levels. Oxytocin (OXT) release in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) mediates dopamine neuron activity, whose projections to the nucleus accumbens bidirectionally modulate duration
ePoster · Neuroscience