Hyperactivity and male-specific sleep deficits in the 16p11.2 deletion mouse model of autism.
Christopher C Angelakos, Adam J Watson, W Timothy O'Brien and 3 others
PMID 27739237WHAT IT FOUND
Male mice with the 16p11.2 deletion slept less and were awake in longer bouts, while both male and female mice were hyperactive.
This is an animal model, not evidence about treating patients.
Key findings
0116p11.2 del/+ mice moved more in their home cage than wildtype littermates on both horizontal and vertical measures, and this did not depend on sex.
02Male 16p11.2 del/+ mice were awake more across the recording day and had less NREM sleep than male wildtype mice, while female del/+ mice did not differ from female wildtype mice.
03The male sleep difference was mainly in wake bout length: male del/+ mice spent more wake time in long continuous bouts and less in shorter bouts than male wildtype mice.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The study was done in mice, not in children or adults with autism or ADHD, so it cannot tell therapists what will happen in a clinic. No treatment was tested, so the paper does not show that any therapy, medication, or sleep intervention works. The mice carried a specific genetic deletion; the findings may not apply to most patients with autism or ADHD. The authors note that no systematic analysis of sleep has been performed in a population of human 16p11.2 hemideletion patients. Different mouse lines of 16p11.2 hemideletion exist, and the authors caution that deletion size and genetic background matter when comparing studies. Some mice were excluded from analyses because of extreme recorded values, and a subset could not be used for spectral analysis because of technical issues.
Declared interests
The supplied text states that the authors declared no competing interests. It does not report funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that a sleep or hyperactivity treatment works in patients with autism or ADHD. The study measured activity and sleep in mice with a genetic deletion, not in people receiving therapy.