Fig. 1

SHANK2 expression in core human and mouse brain regions. a Staining pattern of the selected SHANK2 antibody (Sigma) in a superior frontal gyrus (SFG) section from a post mortem human brain. Scale bars, 1, 5 µm, 2, 2 µm, 3 and 4, 1 µm. The tilescan (bottom, right) shows the six cortical layers and the underlying white matter (WM). The outer border of the tissue section is traced by a dashed white line. SHANK2-positive interstitial neurons (INs) are marked by arrows; the lower neuron is shown in higher magnification in 1. Scale bar, 200 µm. Neuronal sketch (left) adapted from [33]. PN = pyramidal neuron. b Representative images of human SHANK2 protein expression (case 2, purple in the graph) in all analyzed subregions. Arrows in the STH image highlight SHANK2 IF in neurons. Scale bar, 5 µm (left). The normalized mean SHANK2 puncta density in the neuropil is plotted on the right (n = 4). The IGP of case 4 was not discernible by eye. c Representative images of mouse SHANK2 protein expression (blue triangle in the graph) in all analyzed subregions. Scale bar, 5 µm (left). The normalized mean SHANK2 puncta density in the neuropil is plotted on the right (n = 3). In b and c, values were normalized to the CB; means of the analyzed n are indicated by horizontal lines. Brightness/contrast adjustments were performed identically for all regions in human and mouse, respectively