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The Journal of Neuroscience, December 10, 2008, 28(50):13505-13510; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2127-08.2008

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Brief Communications
Impaired Working Memory Duration But Normal Learning Abilities Found in Mice That Are Conditionally Deficient in the Close Homolog of L1

Stefan Kolata,¹ Junfang Wu,³ Kenneth Light,¹ Melitta Schachner,^2,4 and Louis D. Matzel¹

¹Department of Psychology, and ²Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, ³Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, and ⁴Zentrum für Molekulare Neurobiologie, Universität Hamburg, D-20251 Hamburg, Germany

Correspondence should be addressed to Louis D. Matzel, Department of Psychology, 152 Frelinghuysen Road, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Email: matzel{at}rci.rutgers.edu

In addition to its role in axon growth and neuronal migration, the close homolog of L1 (CHL1), a member of the L1 family of cell adhesion molecules, is involved in synaptic plasticity. To date, little has been done to disassociate the role of CHL1 during adulthood from its role during development. To address this issue, mice conditionally deficient in CHL1 (lacking CHL1 only after the third postnatal week) were tested relative to littermate controls as adults in five learning tasks and several tests of working memory (including duration and selective attention). CHL1-deficient mice showed no impairments in the learning tasks compared with wild-type controls. CHL1 deletion had no effect on selective attention despite its widespread impairment of working memory duration. These results suggest a role for CHL1 in the adult-brain in the short-term maintenance of information.

Key words: adhesion; knock-out mice; working memory; learning; memory; synaptic transmission; cognition; attention; selective attention; CHL1

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Received May 5, 2008; revised Sept. 24, 2008; accepted Oct. 21, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Louis D. Matzel, Department of Psychology, 152 Frelinghuysen Road, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Email: matzel{at}rci.rutgers.edu

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