Specific neurons that secrete oxytocin in the brain are disrupted in a mouse model of autism, neuroscientists have found. Stimulating these neurons restored social behaviors in these mice. These findings could help to develop new ways to treat autism.

[u/mvea]

https://www.riken.jp/en/news_pubs/research_news/rr/20250207_1/index.html

[u/iprocrastina]

When you do studies on rodents you're exploring new avenues of research. You don't just start on humans. The idea here is that maybe this neurological deficit seen in mice might be occurring in humans too.

edit: Hit "post" by accident. To continue, when you have promising results in rodents you then have justification to look for the same thing in animals more similar to humans. If things look good there, you can move onto human research. You can't just start screwing around with people's bodies on a hunch, you need to convince an ethics board it's worth the risk.

[u/bigasssuperstar → u/iprocrastina]

If I'm following what you're saying, applying a drug to a mouse embryo results in damage that scientists see expressed as behaviour.....so maybe the humans who behave something like that are also damaged?