Human Molecular Genetics Advance Access originally published online on May 20, 2007
Human Molecular Genetics 2007 16(14):1708-1719; doi:10.1093/hmg/ddm119
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Impairments in impulse control in mice transgenic for the human FTDP-17 tauV337M mutation are exacerbated by age
1 Laboratory of Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience and 2 Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, The Babraham Institute, Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge CB2 4AT, UK, 3 Behavioral Genetics Group, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK, 4 Department of Psychological Medicine, School of Psychology, Cardiff CF14 4XN, UK and 5 Centre for Brain Repair, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 2PY, UK
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +44 2920870357/2920747942; Fax: +44 2920874858; Email: wilkinsonl{at}cardiff.ac.uk
Received February 23, 2007; Accepted April 27, 2007
Abnormalities in microtubule-associated tau protein are a key neuropathological feature of both Alzheimer's disease and many frontotemporal dementias (FTDs), including hereditary FTD with Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17). In these disorders, tau becomes aberrantly phosphorylated, leading to the development of filamentous neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. Here we report, in a longitudinal ageing study, the sensorimotor and cognitive assessment of transgenic mice expressing the human tauV337M (‘Seattle Family A’) FTDP-17 mutation, which we have previously shown to demonstrate abnormalities in brain tau phosphorylation. The data indicated highly specific effects of transgene expression on the ability to withhold responding in a murine version of the 5-choice serial reaction time task, behaviour consistent with deficits in impulse control. Ageing exacerbated these effects. In young tauV337M mice, increased impulsivity was present under task conditions making inhibition of premature responding more difficult (longer inter-trial intervals) but not under baseline conditions. However, when older, the tauV337M mice showed further increases in premature responding, including under baseline conditions. These impulse control deficits were fully dissociable from sensorimotor or motivation effects on performance. The findings recapitulate core abnormalities in impulsive responding observed in both frontal variant FTD and FTDP-17 linked to the tauV337M mutation in humans.
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