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A protein may be key to behavioral flexibility

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A protein may be the key to maintain behavioral flexibility. This protein called PERK enables people to change their behavior to adjust to circumstances similar to events they have experienced in the past. This discovery could help people with autism and schizophrenia, diseases that are notable for impairing the ability to adjust behavior.

We all have stored memories that inform us at to expectations. Certain things have happened in the past and with similar circumstances will again. When some variable changes, our thoughts must adjust and come up with a reasonable alternative. This kind of behavior requires a certain amount of flexibility. That flexibility is partially driven by protein synthesis which produces experience dependent changes in neural function and behavior.

For some people, like schizophrenics and autistic persons, this process is impaired. Researchers set out to find how protein synthesis is regulated during behavioral flexibility and focused on the kinase PERK, an enzyme that regulates protein synthesis and that modifies elF2alpha, a factor required for protein synthesis.

The team used lab mice for their experiments. One group of mice had the PERK enzyme and another did not. The mice were taught to go through a maze then the maze was changed. The mice with PERK were able to solve the problem; the mice without either could not do it, or took much longer to accomplish the task.

This and other experiments led the researchers to believe that the absence of PERK may contribute to impaired flexibility in neurological disorders. Further studies may provide better treatments for people with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Fragile X as well as schizophrenia and autism.

Source: MedicalNewsToday, Cell Reports

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