RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Not a Deficit, Just Different: Prepulse Inhibition Disruptions in Autism Depend on Startle Stimulus Intensities
JF eneuro
JO eNeuro
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP ENEURO.0179-24.2024
DO 10.1523/ENEURO.0179-24.2024
VO 11
IS 9
A1 Doornaert, Ella Elizabeth
A1 Mohamad, Alaa El-Cheikh
A1 Johal, Gurwinder
A1 Allman, Brian Leonard
A1 Möhrle, Dorit
A1 Schmid, Susanne
YR 2024
UL http://www.eneuro.org/content/11/9/ENEURO.0179-24.2024.abstract
AB Sensory processing disruptions are a core symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other neurological disorders. The acoustic startle response and prepulse inhibition (PPI) are common metrics used to assess disruptions in sensory processing and sensorimotor gating in clinical studies and animal models. However, often there are inconsistent findings on ASD-related PPI deficits across different studies. Here, we used a novel method for assessing changes in startle and PPI in rodents, using the Cntnap2 knock-out (KO) rat model for neurodevelopmental disorder/ASD that has consistently shown PPI disruptions in past studies. We discovered that not only sex and prepulse intensity but also the intensity of the startle stimulus profoundly impacts whether PPI deficits are evident in the Cntnap2 KO rat or not. We show that rats do not universally exhibit a PPI deficit; instead, impaired PPI is contingent on specific testing conditions. Notably, at lower startle stimulus intensities, Cntnap2 KO rats not only demonstrated intact PPI but also exhibited evidence of enhanced PPI compared with their wild-type counterparts. This finding emphasizes the importance of considering specific testing conditions when evaluating startle and PPI in the context of ASD and other neuropsychiatric conditions and might explain some of the inconsistencies between different studies.