The brain goes through a process of pruning, removing unnecessary connections between neurons to make way for long-lasting circuits. Assistant Professor Gabrielle Pouchelon studies how these early connections affect brain development and dysfunction. Her team discovered that a receptor protein named mGluR1 regulates the timing of these connections in mice brains. Without mGluR1, connections in the touch-processing region linger too long, leading to atypical behaviors. Understanding early brain development milestones could lead to better therapeutics for neurodevelopmental disorders like autism. By rescuing and correcting brain maturation early, symptoms of these disorders could potentially be prevented in the future.
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Study uncovers the role of mGluR1 in pruning early neural connections
