Glua1 knockout mice show reduced EEG sleep spindle activity without presenting long-term memory deficits
Blanco-Duque C., Ang G., Purple RJ., McKillop LE., Yagamata T., Oliver PL., Bannerman DM., Vyazovskiy VV.
Sleep spindles are field potentials occurring at 10-15 Hz during NREM sleep. Spindles have been implicated in cognitive functions and memory consolidation, and deficits in spindles have been reported in brain disorders including schizophrenia. GWAS have implicated the GRIA1 gene, which codes for the GluA1 AMPA receptor subunit, in schizophrenia, while Gria1-/- mice exhibit a phenotype relevant for neuropsychiatric disorders, such as attentional deficits leading to aberrant salience. Therefore, here we investigated the dynamics of sleep spindles and their relationship with memory performance in Gria1-/- and wild type (WT) mice