Alzheimer’s pathology causes impaired inhibitory connections and reactivation of spatial codes during spatial navigation

Synapse loss and altered synaptic strength are thought to underlie cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by disrupting neural activity essential for memory. While synaptic dysfunction in AD has been well characterized in anesthetized animals and in vitro, it remains unknown how synaptic transmission is altered during behavior. By measuring synaptic efficacy as mice navigate in a virtual reality task, we find deficits in interneuron connection strength onto pyramidal cells in hippocampal CA1 in the 5XFAD mouse model of AD. These inhibitory synaptic deficits are most pronounced during sharp-wave ripples, network oscillations important for memory that require inhibition. Indeed, 5XFAD mice exhibit fewer and shorter sharp-wave ripples with impaired place cell reactivation. By showing inhibitory synaptic dysfunction in 5XFAD mice during spatial navigation behavior and suggesting a synaptic mechanism underlying deficits in network activity essential for memory, this work bridges the gap between synaptic and neural activity deficits in AD.