Contact Us: The NCP Lab is located in the 3rd (Zen) Yard in the campus of Beijing Normal University , Beijing, China. Dr. Xiaohui Zhang ; Phone: (010) 5880-4978.
Exp. Tools: We use multiple approaches including electrophysiology (in vivo and slices), optogenetics, cellular imaging, and transgenic mouse models of brain diseases.
Research Direction
- Our research is focused on elucidating corticohippocampal circuitry mechanisms that underlie associative learning, spatial navigation and critical period plasticity of the brain.
Sh3rf2 haploinsufficiency induces Autistic-like behaviors.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) include a variety of developmental brain disorders with clinical findings implicating the dysfunction of the left hemisphere. We generate mice lacking one copy of ASD-related genen Sh3rf2 and find that these mice recapture multiple ASD-like behavioral deficits. The Sh3rf2 haploinsufficiency resultes in abnormal excitatory synaptic transmission in the hippocampus, which is remarkably unilateral in the left hemisphere. Thus, our results support a notion that Sh3rf2 haploinsufficiency is a highly penetrant risk factor for ASD.