We first asked whether schizophrenic derivation of engrafted glia affected prepulse inhibition (PPI), a behavioral hallmark of both clinical schizophrenics and animal models thereof (Ewing and Grace, 2013). PPI reflects the coordination of sensorimotor gating in the CNS, and its diminution may predict aspects of schizophrenic phenotype (Ivleva et al., 2013; Kohl et al., 2013). We found that when assessed at 6 months of age – the latest time-point at which the C57Bl/6 background strain of our rag1−/− mice can be reliably assessed, since these mice suffer premature auditory loss which might otherwise diminish auditory PPI – that mice engrafted with SCZ hGPCs exhibited significantly diminished auditory prepulse inhibition (Figure 6A), and did so at all volumes of pre-pulse. Given the strong effect of SCZ glial chimerization on PPI, we next asked if SCZ glial chimerization might be associated with changes in behavior on cognitive and socialization tests. To that end, we compared SCZ and control chimeras on a battery of behavioral tests that included: 1) the elevated plus maze, a measure of anxiety (Walf and Frye, 2007); 2) the
