Summary
Atypical sensory experience is an almost universal feature of autism. Amongst sensory modalities, tactile perception is particularly impacted, with alterations including difficulties detecting and discriminating low-level stimuli. However, we have not yet defined the neural underpinnings of low-level tactile perception and how they change in autism. Here we recapitulate the multifaceted tactile features of autistic individuals in the Fmr1-/y mouse model of autism and show tactile hyposensitivity and unreliable responses in a subgroup of Fmr1-/y mice. We reveal that weak stimulus encoding in the primary somatosensory cortex of Fmr1-/y-hyposensitive mice renders perception vulnerable to the ongoing network state and thus unreliable. Increasing the number and reliability of stimulus-recruited neurons by targeting the large conductance calcium-activated potassium (BKCa) channels improves tactile perception. Our work shows an evolutionarily conserved role for the primary somatosensory cortex in low-level tactile perception and encompasses a highly translational approach for probing perceptual changes in neurodevelopmental conditions.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
