r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Feb 08 '25

Neuroscience 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.

https://www.riken.jp/en/news_pubs/research_news/rr/20250207_1/index.html
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u/Septic-Abortion-Ward Feb 08 '25

Oh boy we're bringing back the refrigerator mom hypothesis for autism, this will be a bloodbath

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u/Quinlov Feb 09 '25

TBF I feel like these hypotheses can be worth revisiting, my understanding is that that hypothesis was discarded not due to evidence against it but because it became unfashionable to "blame the parents" (irrespective of whether it was actually something that they did)

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u/maybeiamwrong2 Feb 09 '25

There is good evidence for mental health disorders being influenced by a bunch of causal factors, not just parenting style (and that is already a stretch, as just being cold certainly is on the positive end of what could be considered maltreatment). On the other hand, there is no evidence I know of showing that cold mothers lead to any one specific outcome, let alone as the sole causal factor.

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u/Quinlov Feb 09 '25

Right yeah I mean it's obviously not the sole causal factor but I wouldn't be surprised if it can have a significant influence. These things tend to be overdetermined and I wouldn't expect any given aetiological factor to always lead to one specific outcome either