There’s yet another report describing yet further findings regarding mouse models of autism, coming as the 80 kajillionth such entry into the annals of such endeavors. Once upon a time, news outlets would cover mouse studies with a level of gullibility that’s charming in a child but less so in professionals whose vocation is predicated on skepticism. That’s not happening as much in these wonder years that are our current times, but occasionally, the little rodents still make headlines.

This time, the headlines involves a light sprinkling of attention to a study purporting to distill 17 genetically tweaked mouse models into two categories based on which genes are put to use in the models. But the usual elephant-sized caveat applies about using these little, hyper-reproductive mammals to “model” autism.

Mice are used to “model,” among other things, the effects of genetic changes in a mammal as a hint at what such changes might do in people, who also are mammals. A limitation is that the two species are separated by about 90 million years of evolution, which is a long time for nature to use existing genes in different ways for the different demands of being a mouse versus a person. A primary use of mouse models in autism research – and indeed, most of what is called “preclinical” research – is to find gene variants and related molecules that can be candidate drug targets. That means that those who conduct allegedly autism-related studies in mouse models are hoping that their findings break containment in the preclinical world and end up being “translated,” or serving as the foundation for drug development for use in humans.

In this particular study, in addition to developing two categories based on how genes were leveraged in each of 17 mouse models, the researchers also report finding different behavioral responses between these two groups to the psychoactive drugs lithium and fluoxetine (aka Prozac) – in one of them. 

I’m not going to get into a lot of inside baseball about strains of mice and their variable neuroendocrine physiological responses (how the brain and hormone systems cross interact and affect each other). I will just note that in 7 out of 17 lines, sex was a factor in whether or not a mouse model bearing a specific variant fell into one category or the other. There is a large literature on the baseline sex differences in behavior and other outcomes specifically in the mouse strain used (with one exception) here. None of this is likely news to people who work with these models. I also wonder what these results would look like in mice developed using a different genetic background and if the two categories identified would still emerge.

Even without the general complexity that the context of an entire animal offers in such work, there is the issue of the aim of work like this. The eternal premise of such studies is the need to treat autism (and to make the enormous bank that developers hope would follow on claims of a treatment). Over the last couple of decades, billions of dollars have been spent around the world on mouse-model and other non–human-animal modeling of autism, with very little to show. That’s a common pattern for preclinical studies and findings, as only a tiny slice ever do break that preclinical obscurity and make their debut on the clinical stage.

Meanwhile, autistic people have languished in a different kind of obscurity, their social and functional needs unattended or ignored and their mental health and medical needs ignored or mistreated, while living at times ostracized and even vilified by some who hold the highest and most powerful offices in the nation.

And the mice don’t get anything out of all of this, either. 

News you can use

• The BBC is going on and on about the final version of a report that was released as interim back in the summer claiming that autism and ADHD are overdiagnosed. I’ve critiqued this wearisome tune too many times to count over the years, so I’m going to turn the critique this time over to Brian Irvine, an autistic researcher at University College London (UCL) Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE). Irvine writes at LinkedIn that “There are the same number of autistic people. It’s just that we have spotted them. Particularly in children and young people.” Also, he uses the word “bleating” to describe how BBC et al. are covering this “news,” and I love that. 
• From our editors: CommunicationFIRST warns that “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has proposed changes to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) that would make it harder for our community to take the NHIS and be counted. The CDC intends to remove survey questions about many kinds of disabilities, health conditions, and assistive technology. The CDC also plans to require that respondents take the NHIS by themselves online or on paper, instead of having a conversation with a trained interviewer. These changes could ultimately hurt our ability to get services and supports as disabled people. You can help by telling the CDC that the NHIS cannot serve its purpose if it does not accurately count us. Please review our call to action and send in comments against the proposed changes. Comments are due Monday, October 19.”
• Autistic children are more likely to experience problems with anxiety than non-autistic children, which can have lasting effects on their well-being and development. Researchers talked to autistic kids themselves for this study, who said that "Being understood is the safest path," among other insights. NB: Here is an example of how all those mouse model monies could be spent. 
• RFK the Lesser loves to manipulate data and science for his own gain, and his proposed Vaccine Injury Research Center is no exception. Pediatrician Vince Iannelli at Vaxopedia writes about the shenanigans hidden behind the seemingly benign facade of this plan. 
• From editor Shannon Rosa: “Given my experience with restaurants accommodating my now-adult autistic son who eats less than 10 foods, and for whom I’ve always brought his own food everywhere: I believe it is a dick move for restaurants to not let autistic people with ARFID/limited diets bring their own food as part of a dining group, especially small children. Though I do recommend calling the restaurant ahead of time to confirm whether or not they are, in fact, dicks about this issue (or if the issue is rigidity about health code violations).  
• From the editors: Fantastic explanations by STAT Disability in Health Care Fellow O. Rose Broderick on major federal rollbacks of landmark disability protections such as Section 504, as well as broader trends in federal disability rights.

• Canada has suspended plans to expand assisted dying to people with mental illness: “Canada says it will indefinitely suspend plans to expand its medically assisted dying (MAID) law to people whose sole condition is mental illness, citing a lack of consensus on who would be eligible.”

  BUT: Julia Metraux of Mother Jones notes, “However, you can still qualify if you're struggling with an undiagnosed chronic pain condition and haven't even seen a specialist yet to get a diagnosis and treatment. This move is good, but MAID in Canada is dangerously expansive.” 

• Autistic people vary in their movements a lot more and show more favoring of one side over the other compared to non-autistic people, according to results from a study in China.  

People you should know

• “When neurodivergent people share their own stories, they replace an abstraction with a person, and they replace the deficit frame with a fuller, more accurate one that appreciates strengths while acknowledging the challenges they face. That shift matters at every level.” -Lawrence Fung, Director of the Stanford Center for Neurodiversity and Human Potential:    

• It is often welcome to find yourself identifying with a character in a story, but it is especially meaningful when what you’re identifying with may be viewed as strange or a social deficit in real life. Lillian Crawford talks in an interview with The Guardian about the “cultural awakening” she experienced watching the movie “Amélie,” which features a character who codes very strongly as autistic. Crawford reflects on that experience of feeling seen in the depiction of the main character:

  In the opening credits, young Amélie flaps her hands over her ears, spins a coin and runs a finger round the rim of a glass – behaviours I now recognise as “stimming” (repetitive movements, sounds or words that help process sensory input or manage emotions). Adult Amélie’s overwhelm is communicated not only through Audrey Tautou’s performance, but through the cinematography. When she takes the Paris Métro, the wide lens and intensified sound evoke the experience of sensory overload. When Amélie is happy, everything glows. When she is sad, she literally becomes a puddle on the floor. - Alexander Myles is the 11-year-old autistic actor who gives voice to Pablo in a television show produced in Belfast that features the title character as an autistic boy who uses magic crayons to navigate life’s challenges.  

New at TPGA

The new film “Masc” follows a biracial queer autistic man as he attempts to navigate who he is. Sarah Kurchak discusses its intimacy and accessibility with filmmaker Bertil Nilsson, and actor Joshua Griffin.

Masc: A Film at the Intersection of Autism, Race, and Queerness

Thanks for reading, and here’s to the cultural awakening of feeling seen through storytelling.

Got something autism-related to share with us? Send it along to [email protected].

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