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/bigasssuperstar Feb 08 '25

Scientists' presumptions that what looks like autism in their judgment of mouse behaviour is the same thing as what they think looks like autism in human behaviour is still stuck in the idea that what makes humans autistic can be understood from analysis of behaviour by non-autistic people.

IOW, they think they understand human autism; they think mouse autism is that, too; they think helping mouse autism will help autistic humans. But I don't believe they understand human autism at the start of that chain.

I don't question the methods they're using to test their hypotheses, but this is so many steps removed from autistic adults and what they say about their experience of the world that I don't trust it to be applicable to human autism.

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u/Quinlov Feb 09 '25

Noone understands autism anymore because in popular discourse the word has become so overused that it has completely lost meaning

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u/bigasssuperstar Feb 09 '25

That's not true. Are you saying you've lost track of what autism is?

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u/Quinlov Feb 09 '25

I'm saying that people have taken to describing pretty much everything as autism

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u/bigasssuperstar Feb 09 '25

Yes, and that's not true.

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u/Quinlov Feb 09 '25

Sorry I forgot you are the person who decides what is and is not true