Recent advance in role of prefrontal cortex in pathogenesis of schizophrenia / 中华神经医学杂志

Schizophrenia is a serious neurological disorder characterized by incoordination among thinking, cognition, emotion and behavior, and its pathogenesis remains unclear now. In recent years, an increasing number of reports have found that the occurrence of schizophrenia shares a close relationship with prefrontal cortex (PFC), while the later plays an important role in numerous advanced cognitive functions, including working memory, learning and decision making. This review focuses on the recent development of neural circuits, including neurodevelopment, neurotransmitters, synaptic transmission, functional connectivity of brain regions and neural synchrony oscillation in PFC. Hopefully, this review will help to elucidate the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, and provide approaches and ideas for the treatment of relevant psychiatric disorders.

Comparative Study of ROCK1 and ROCK2 in Hippocampal Spine Formation and Synaptic Function / 神经科学通报·英文版

Rho-associated kinases (ROCKs) are serine-threonine protein kinases that act downstream of small Rho GTPases to regulate the dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton. Two ROCK isoforms (ROCK1 and ROCK2) are expressed in the mammalian central nervous system. Although ROCK activity has been implicated in synapse formation, whether the distinct ROCK isoforms have different roles in synapse formation and function in vivo is not clear. Here, we used a genetic approach to address this long-standing question. Both Rock1 and Rock2 mice had impaired glutamatergic transmission, reduced spine density, and fewer excitatory synapses in hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. In addition, both Rock1 and Rock2 mice showed deficits in long-term potentiation at hippocampal CA1 synapses and were impaired in spatial learning and memory based on the water maze and contextual fear conditioning tests. However, the spine morphology of CA1 pyramidal neurons was altered only in Rock2 but not Rock1 mice. In this study we compared the roles of ROCK1 and ROCK2 in synapse formation and function in vivo for the first time. Our results provide a better understanding of the functions of distinct ROCK isoforms in synapse formation and function.