The Department of Translational Medicine and Physiology welcomes Dr. Michelle Bridi, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University to WSU Spokane on Tuesday, Sept. 10. She will be providing her seminar at 12:10 p.m., “Sleep and synaptic (dys)regulation: Implications for autism spectrum disorder,” in SAC 347 and via Zoom.
Alterations to the balance between excitation and inhibition (E/I ratio) are hypothesized to underlie behavioral phenotypes in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients and mouse models. However, in wild type mice, the E/I ratio is not constant, but instead increases and decreases over periods enriched in wake and sleep, respectively. In this talk, Dr. Bridi will examine how E/I regulation by sleep and wake states is altered in two ASD-related mouse lines: Fmr1 KO and BTBR, models of syndromic and idiopathic ASD, respectively. She will present data showing that the E/I ratio is dysregulated in both lines, and that these phenotypes are associated with alterations in endocannabinoid signaling, but not with altered sleep. These findings suggest that ASD phenotypes may be produced by a mismatch between the E/I ratio and behavioral state due to uncoupling of E/I regulation from sleep/wake states, rather than alterations to overall E/I levels per se.
We look forward to you joining us in person (SAC 347) or through Zoom!
Questions/Zoom link? Contact Michelle Sanchez at michelle.r.sanchez@wsu.edu.
