| First Author | Fernandes C | Year | 2006 |
| Journal | Genes Brain Behav | Volume | 5 |
| Issue | 6 | Pages | 433-40 |
| PubMed ID | 16923147 | Mgi Jnum | J:123663 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3718964 | Doi | 10.1111/j.1601-183X.2005.00176.x |
| Citation | Fernandes C, et al. (2006) Performance deficit of alpha7 nicotinic receptor knockout mice in a delayed matching-to-place task suggests a mild impairment of working/episodic-like memory. Genes Brain Behav 5(6):433-40 |
| abstractText | Patients with schizophrenia exhibit deficits in a range of cognitive functions, particularly working and episodic memory, which are thought to be core features of the disorder. Memory dysfunction in schizophrenia is familial and thus a promising endophenotype for genetic studies. Both human and animal studies suggest a role for the neural nicotinic acid receptor family in cognition and specifically the alpha7-receptor subunit in schizophrenia and its endophenotypes. Consequently, we tested mice lacking the alpha7 subunit of the neural nicotinic receptor (B6.129S7-Chrna7(tm1Bay)/J) in the delayed matching-to-place (DMP) task of the Morris water maze, a measure of working/episodic memory akin to human episodic memory. We report that a minor impairment in alpha7 knockout mice was observed in the DMP task, with knockout mice taking longer to find the hidden platform than their wildtype controls. This suggests a role for the alpha7 subunit in working/episodic memory and a potential role for the alpha7 neural nicotinic receptor gene (CHRNA7) in schizophrenia and its endophenotypes. |
