Prepulse inhibition come strumento diagnostico per lo studio del comportamento impulsivo-aggressivo nella schizofrenia

Sensorimotor gating is a perceptual process aimed at filtering out irrelevant information. In humans and animal models, this function can be operationally measured through the prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex. Notably, PPI deficits are associated with numerous neuropsychiatric conditions characterized by gating disturbances and personality aggressive traits, including schizophrenia and Tourette syndrome. Nevertheless, the mechanism underlying the physiopathology is poor understood, principally by the lack of valid animal models. Given the genetic and environmental interplay in schizophrenia background onset, we tested a (endo)phenotype of schizotypal behavior associated with aggression, provided by a MAO-A deficient mice line subjected to early psychosocial stress. Interestingly, these animals represent an isomorphic model of human condition of MAO-A polymorphism, related to antisocial personality and increased aggression. We investigated drug sensibility on sensorimotor gating function across different rat and mice strains to elicit differences due to genetic background in PPI response. Furthermore, we tested MAO-A deficient mice mutant with resident-intruder test to asses early stress impact on aggressive and antisocial behavior.