%0 Journal Article
%T Linking haploinsufficiency of the autism- and schizophrenia-associated gene Cyfip1 with striatal-limbic-cortical network dysfunction and cognitive inflexibility.
%A Haddon JE
%A Titherage D
%A Heckenast JR
%A Carter J
%A Owen MJ
%A Hall J
%A Wilkinson LS
%A Jones MW
%J Transl Psychiatry
%V 14
%N 1
%D 2024 Jun 14
%M 38876996
%F 7.989
%R 10.1038/s41398-024-02969-x
%X Impaired behavioural flexibility is a core feature of neuropsychiatric disorders and is associated with underlying dysfunction of fronto-striatal circuitry. Reduced dosage of Cyfip1 is a risk factor for neuropsychiatric disorder, as evidenced by its involvement in the 15q11.2 (BP1-BP2) copy number variant: deletion carriers are haploinsufficient for CYFIP1 and exhibit a two- to four-fold increased risk of schizophrenia, autism and/or intellectual disability. Here, we model the contributions of Cyfip1 to behavioural flexibility and related fronto-striatal neural network function using a recently developed haploinsufficient, heterozygous knockout rat line. Using multi-site local field potential (LFP) recordings during resting state, we show that Cyfip1 heterozygous rats (Cyfip1+/-) harbor disrupted network activity spanning medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampal CA1 and ventral striatum. In particular, Cyfip1+/- rats showed reduced influence of nucleus accumbens and increased dominance of prefrontal and hippocampal inputs, compared to wildtype controls. Adult Cyfip1+/- rats were able to learn a single cue-response association, yet unable to learn a conditional discrimination task that engages fronto-striatal interactions during flexible pairing of different levers and cue combinations. Together, these results implicate Cyfip1 in development or maintenance of cortico-limbic-striatal network integrity, further supporting the hypothesis that alterations in this circuitry contribute to behavioural inflexibility observed in neuropsychiatric diseases including schizophrenia and autism.