Familiar Objects Can Prevent Autism-like Behaviors in Mouse Model

From the lab of Pico Caroni & colleagues.

News article from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Switzerland, highlighting a study led by Sebastian Kruettner, currently a Y. Eva Tan Postdoctoral Fellow in the Greenberg Lab at Harvard Medical School. While in the Caroni lab, Kruettner and his colleagues observed that exposing mice with an autism mutation (Shank 3 mutation) to a novel environment can trigger autism-like behaviors. This involves aberrant dopamine signaling in the brain—particularly, in the tail of striatum region, modulated by the prelimbic cortex. Introducing familiar objects into the novel environment can rescue some of the physiological and behavioral alterations noted in these mice. 

See the original research article in Neuron.

See also this Spectrum article and audio clip about this work.