behavior/neurological
• mice show a significantly impaired ability to maintain balance on a rotating rod at 3 different speeds (16, 24 and 32 rpm)
• in a balance beam test, mice show a significantly increased number of paw slips at two different beam diameters (11 mm and 28 mm)
• however, no gait disturbances are detected in a footprint test
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nervous system
N |
• cerebellar histology is grossly normal, with no significant alterations in Purkinje cell morphology in terms of alignment, density, axonal elongation or dendritic structure
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• mice show impaired cerebellar long-term synaptic plasticity (LTD and LTP) at the parallel fiber (PF)-Purkinje cell synapse
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• although Purkinje cells exhibit long-lasting potentiated PF-evoked excitatory post synaptic currents (EPSCs) after 300 PF-stimuli at 1 Hz, the amplitude of LTP is significantly smaller than that in control mice
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• Purkinje cells fail to exhibit depressed PF-evoked EPSCs after conjunctive stimuli, unlike in control mice
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