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My initials thoughts when reading Ayhan et al. 2011 is that modelling schizophrenia based on a single gene mutation seemed like an oversimplification of a complex disorder. However, I do realize how difficult it is to even attempt to model this disorder. I thought it was really interesting to see that the gene expression has to happen at particular critical periods in order to cause changes in behavior.  This is something we have been talking about a lot in the class Brain, Behavior, and Immunity (BBI). Something else we have been talking about a lot in BBI is that these critical periods are usually very different in females and males. This paper used both females and males and there are differences in behaviors between genders with the forced swim test (FST) and tail suspension task (TST) but the paper never offers a thorough explanation as to what they might think this means. I would have like their thoughts on the differences in critical period between females and males with schizophrenia for this gene.

The second paper, Burrows et al. 2015, was my favorite of the two and takes a very different approach to modelling schizophrenia. I was actually unaware that environmental factors needed to be taken into consideration with schizophrenia; I was under the misconception that it is a purely genetic disease. I had seen the environmental enrichment (EE) paradigm used in studies of depression but to see it implemented in this context was very cool.  I was a little confused as to why this paper did not also use an environment derived paradigm (small cage without standard bedding maybe?) as additional comparison for the differences between the knockouts, as I feel like this would have provided even more support to idea that EE is responsible for altering behavioral impairments.

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