A human electrophysiological biomarker of Fragile X Syndrome is shared in V1 of Fmr1 KO mice and caused by loss of FMRP in cortical excitatory neurons

Predicting clinical therapeutic outcomes from preclinical animal studies remains an obstacle to developing treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders. Electrophysiological biomarkers analyzed consistently across species could bridge this divide. In humans, alpha oscillations in the resting state electroencephalogram (rsEEG) are altered in many disorders, but these disruptions have not yet been characterized in animal models. Here, we employ a uniform analytical method to show in males with fragile X syndrome (FXS) that the slowed alpha oscillations observed in adults are also present in children and in visual cortex of adult and juvenile Fmr1 -/y mice. We find that alpha-like oscillations in mice reflect the differential activity of two classes of inhibitory interneurons, but the phenotype is caused by deletion of Fmr1 specifically in cortical excitatory neurons. These results provide a framework for studying alpha oscillation disruptions across species, advance understanding of a critical rsEEG signature in the human brain and inform the cellular basis for a putative biomarker of FXS.