Burrows et al and Ayhan et al

Burrows et al and Ayhan et al each contributed different findings to the study of schizophrenia. The Burrows paper was mostly interested in gene-environment interactions using knockout mice that did not have mGlu5 receptors. They predicted that raising the knockout mice in an enhanced housing situation would ameliorate the symptoms (schizophrenia-like symptoms) that were produced by knocking out the gene. They found improvements in working memory, PPI, and spatial memory in knockout mice raised in enriched housing compared to the knockout mice raised in standard housing. These findings are of significant interest because it has great implications for the future of studying schizophrenia and future treatments. For instance, if you know there is a dysregulation of NMDA receptors in a human, you could try to raise them in a very positive environment in order to try to get rid of the associated symptoms. I thought this article was really cool because it investigated an idea that we have not really seen in past papers, the idea that environment can play such a key role in many mental illnesses.

Ayhan et al contributed findings surrounding the DISC1 protein, and showed that expression of the protein at different neurodevelopmental stages in mice led to very different symptoms in each of the groups of mice. It was interesting and substantial that the mice that expressed the protein before and after birth had the most significant behavioral abnormalities, since it is generally thought that development is key for schizophrenia symptoms. Overall, I liked the Burrows paper better because I thought the idea was new and exciting, and the Ayhan paper was not concrete enough in its argument because of the varying effects of DISC1 on the different stages of development. It seemed like they could not say with confidence what stage led to what symptoms seen in the experiments.