Disrupted stimulus encoding shapes tactile perception in autism.
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.