The effect of schizophrenia risk factors on mismatch responses in a rat model

Reduced mismatch negativity (MMN), a robust finding in schizophrenia, has prompted interest in MMN as a preclinical biomarker of schizophrenia. The rat brain can generate human-like mismatch responses (MMRs) which therefore enables the exploration of the neurobiology of reduced MMRs. Given epidemiological evidence that two developmental factors, maternal infection and adolescent cannabis use, increase the risk of schizophrenia, we determined the effect of these two developmental risk factors on rat MMR amplitude in different auditory contexts. MMRs were assessed in awake adult male and female Wistar rats that were offspring of pregnant dams treated with either a viral infection mimetic (poly I:C) inducing maternal immune activation (MIA) or saline control. In adolescence, subgroups of the prenatal treatment groups were exposed to either a synthetic cannabinoid (adolescent cannabinoid exposure: ACE) or vehicle. The context under which MMRs were obtained was manipulated by employing two different oddball paradigms, one that manipulated the physical difference between rare and common auditory stimuli, and another that manipulated the probability of the rare stimulus. The design of the multiple stimulus sequences across the two paradigms also allowed an investigation of context on MMRs to two identical stimulus sequences. Male offspring exposed to each of the risk factors for schizophrenia (MIA, ACE or both) showed a reduction in MMR, which was evident only in the probability paradigm, with no effects seen in the physical difference. Our findings highlight the importance of contextual factors induced by paradigm manipulations and sex for modeling schizophrenia-like MMN impairments in rats.