Naturally occurring low sociality in female rhesus monkeys: A tractable model for autism or not?

This was an animal model study in female rhesus monkeys, not a study of human patients, so it cannot tell therapists how to assess or treat autism. The biological measures came from only 16 monkeys, and some analyses included 14 or 15 animals because of missing data, so they are too small for firm conclusions. The study did not compare female and male monkeys directly because of budget constraints, so the sex difference in model usefulness is inferred from earlier work rather than tested here. The authors say the mSRS-R may not capture how female monkeys express autistic-like traits, and they discuss a possible Female Autism Phenotype, but they did not test that explanation. Behaviour coding did not record whether the monkey initiated social contact or whether partners were maternal kin or unrelated peers, which could matter for interpreting social scores. Only vasopressin and oxytocin were measured, so other biological pathways were not examined.

Funding was reported from the National Institutes of Health, the Simons Foundation, and the Stanford Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. No additional conflict statement is provided.

Do not conclude that low sociality, vasopressin, or oxytocin is a useful clinical marker for autism in girls. This study tested female rhesus monkeys, not human patients, and the main low-sociality measure did not predict monkey autism-like scores; rank did.