Impaired limbic Cortico-striatal structure and sustained visual attention in a rodent model of schizophrenia

摘要: Background: N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) dysfunction is thought to contribute the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Accordingly, NMDAR antagonists such as phencyclidine (PCP) are used widely in experimental animals model cognitive impairment associated with this disorder. However, it unclear whether PCP disrupts structural integrity brain areas relevant profile schizophrenia. Methods: Here we high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-based morphometry investigate alterations sub-chronic treatment rats. Results: Sub-chronic exposure rats (5mg/kg twice daily for 7 days) impaired sustained visual attention on a 5-choice serial reaction time task, notably when attentional load was increased. In contrast, had no significant effect filtering pre-pulse auditory stimulus an acoustic startle paradigm. Voxel-based revealed significantly reduced grey matter density bilaterally hippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex, ventral striatum, amygdala. PCP-treated also exhibited cortical thickness insular cortex. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that NMDA antagonism sufficient produce highly-localized morphological abnormalities implicated pathogenesis Furthermore, resulted dissociable impairments function.