Question: Can mice get autism? How can you tell when you lab mouse has autism? Do you need special autistic mice to do your work, or do you need to have lots of mice and find ones with autism?

People with Autism withdraw into themselves, often can’t communicate, get stuck in repetitive and restrictive behaviours and have extreme hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli.

We can use mice to study Autism because they are very social creatures and we can breed gene mutations that have been found in people with autism into mice very easily.

I work with a mouse with an autism gene mutation. I test their social behaviour towards mice they haven’t seen before. A mouse with an autism gene mutation will often choose to spend time in the opposite corner to the new mouse.

Because there are lots of gene mutations associated with autism many scientists around the world are working on different mice. When we all get together at conferences to talk about our work we can compare what we have found. Its a very complicated disorder with many pieces of the puzzle still missing.