MRI of Capn15 Knockout Mice and Analysis of Capn 15 Distribution Reveal Possible Roles in Brain Development and Plasticity

•Capn 15 mice have smaller brains with specific decreases in thalamus and hippocampus subregions.•Removing Capn15 after development in excitatory forebrain neurons leads to normal size brains.•In the adult, Capn 15 is expressed in neurons implicated in synaptic plasticity including CA1, CA3 and Purkinje neurons.•Capn 15 is expressed in the eye in a subset of retinal ganglion cells and displaced cholinergic amacrine cells.