Sociability deficits after prenatal exposure to valproic acid are rescued by early social enrichment.
Marcos Campolongo, Nadia Kazlauskas, German Falasco and 4 others
PMID 29946415WHAT IT FOUND
Male mice prenatally exposed to valproic acid that were housed with saline-treated peers after weaning showed social interaction similar to controls.
The same housing did not reverse repetitive behavior, reduced exploration, or depression-related immobility.
Key findings
01Adult mice prenatally exposed to valproic acid and housed only with other valproic acid-exposed mice showed less sociability than all other groups, while those housed with saline-treated peers showed social interaction similar to controls.
02Early social housing did not reverse repetitive behavior or depression-related outcomes: valproic acid-exposed mice groomed more, showed altered Y-maze alternation, explored less, and were more immobile in despair tests.
03PET imaging showed altered brain glucose metabolism in valproic acid-only housed mice, including increased piriform cortex metabolism, while mice rescued by social housing had patterns more similar to controls.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The work was done in mice, not people, so it does not show what a therapist should do with a child. Only male mice were studied because the authors did not see ASD-related social effects in females in their model. The intervention was housing with other mice, not a structured therapy, and the actual amount of social stimulation was not measured. Sociability was measured by sniffing a mouse in a cage, not by communication, play, or daily-life outcomes. Repetitive behavior, exploration, and depression-related immobility were not improved by the social housing. The authors did not predetermine sample size and only corrected for multiple testing in PET analyses. The authors could not identify a precise critical period and could not rule out other unknown factors such as microbiota.
Declared interests
Funding came from Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica and Universidad de Buenos Aires. No other conflicts are stated in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not infer that early social enrichment in children with autism will improve sociability. This was a mouse study using prenatal valproic acid exposure, male offspring only, and it did not reverse repetitive or depression-related behaviors.