Disruption in Patterning in the Whisker-to-Barrel Cortex Pathway Alters Behavior
Lutchman, J. M.; Lutchman, S. A.; Brumberg, J. C.
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Mice use their whiskers to convey sensory information, navigate, and explore their environment. We investigated the behavioral impact of the disruption of somatotopic patterning along the whisker-to-barrel pathway utilizing two mouse models: Barrelless (BRL) mice, an adenylyl cyclase 1 variation, in which somatotopic patterning is absent in the barrel cortex, and Prrxl1-/- mice, a genetic knockout in which patterning is disrupted along the entire lemniscal pathway. A textured novel object recognition test was conducted to investigate whisker-dependent discriminatory behavior, and an open field test was conducted to investigate exploratory behavior. Results were compared to an outbred strain (CD-1) and demonstrated that BRL mice were able to discriminate, whereas Prrxl1-/- mice were unable to discriminate between textures, and that both strains exhibited increased anxiety. Exploratory and locomotor behavior increased in BRL mice but decreased in Prrxl1-/- mice. Together, the results suggest that somatotopy may be related to behavioral phenotype.
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