TY - JOUR T1 - Impaired Critical Period Plasticity in Primary Auditory Cortex of Fragile X Model Mice JF - The Journal of Neuroscience JO - J. Neurosci. SP - 15686 LP - 15692 DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3246-12.2013 VL - 33 IS - 40 AU - Heesoo Kim AU - Robert Gibboni AU - Colleen Kirkhart AU - Shaowen Bao Y1 - 2013/10/02 UR - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/40/15686.abstract N2 - Fragile X syndrome, the most common form of heritable mental retardation, is a developmental disorder with known effects within sensory systems. Altered developmental plasticity has been reported in the visual and somatosensory systems in Fmr1 knock-out (KO) mice. Behavioral studies have revealed maladaptive auditory responses in fragile X syndrome patients and Fmr1 KO mice, suggesting that adaptive plasticity may also be impaired in the auditory system. Here we show that, whereas tonotopic frequency representation develops normally in Fmr1 KO mice, developmental plasticity in primary auditory cortex is grossly impaired. This deficit can be rescued by pharmacological blockade of mGluR5 receptors. These results support the mGluR hypothesis of fragile X mental retardation and suggest that deficient developmental plasticity may contribute to maladaptive auditory processing in fragile X syndrome. ER -