Scientists Switch Social Behaviors On and Off in Mice, Shedding Light on Human Social Disorders
Making Mice Antisocial By toggling social behaviors on and off in mice, Stanford researchers may have figured out what causes social-behavior deficits in humans, particularly those with social disorders like autism. ksalonsweetly via Flickr Just yesterday we learned that Caltech researchers can use pulses of light to toggle aggressive behaviors in the mouse brain. Today we learn that elsewhere on the West Coast scientists are turning social behaviors in mice on and off using the same method, and that could have big implications for social disorders like autism and schizophrenia in humans. Using optogenetics--essentially, bioengineering different clusters of nerve cells to respond to certain frequencies of light--a team of Stanford researchers has found a way to test an established yet untested hypothesis about social dysfunction. This hypothesis holds that social-behavior deficits are linked to the propensity of excitatory nerve cells versus inhibitory nerve cells to fire. That is, when facing social stimulus people...