Week 7

Burrows et al. (2015) used an environmental enrichment model to investigate the role of mGlu5 in terms of its interaction with NMDA receptors and its implication in schizophrenia. Although their findings were cool, I’m not sure if I’m convinced with the environmental enrichment model. For example (others may not agree on this), sometimes “positive things” often "distract" us and that may produce temporary improvements in one’s mental state and behavior, but that doesn’t mean the underlying problem doesn’t exist anymore or has improved permanently.  Therefore, I wonder what would happen if these mice were subjected to long-term exposure of EE, would they get habituated to the environment or continue to show improvements? On the other hand, I really liked Ayhan et al.’s paper. Their systematic approach of using various time points to identify the critical window when mutant DISC1’S effects are most prominent was really clever. Not only were they thorough, but they also used several different kinds of tests that provided a holistic and informative understanding. I found it interesting that they screened for male-male social interactions and was impressed that they used female mice in their study. It is well known that there are sex differences relating to this schizophrenia and other disorders, and this was evident in the TST and FST result found in pre+post female mice wherein they displayed depressive-like behavior.  Support for MK-801 induced locomotor activity was also present in this paper but it was surprising to see why this effect was only evident in male mice? Overall, I had very little criticism with this paper and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s discussion.