Scientists Switch Social Behaviors On and Off in Mice, Shedding Light on Human Social Disorders

By Clay Dillow Posted 07.27.2011 at 6:06 pm 11 Comments

Making Mice Antisocial By toggling social behaviors on and off in mice, Stanford researchers may have figured out what causes social-behavior deficits in humans, particularly those with social disorders like autism. ksalonsweetly via Flickr

Just yesterday we learned that Caltech researchers can use pulses of light to toggle aggressive behaviors in the mouse brain. Today we learn that elsewhere on the West Coast scientists are turning social behaviors in mice on and off using the same method, and that could have big implications for social disorders like autism and schizophrenia in humans.

Using optogenetics--essentially, bioengineering different clusters of nerve cells to respond to certain frequencies of light--a team of Stanford researchers has found a way to test an established yet untested hypothesis about social dysfunction. This hypothesis holds that social-behavior deficits are linked to the propensity of excitatory nerve cells versus inhibitory nerve cells to fire.

That is, when facing social stimulus people with social disorders experience an imbalance wherein too many excitatory nerves fire (or not enough inhibitory nerves fire) resulting in a kind of over-responsiveness. This lines up nicely with empirical evidence (for instance, autistic people becoming agitated by loud noises or by too many people talking at the same time) as well as a certain anomalous brain-wave pattern known as gamma-oscillation that is detected in many people suffering from autism or schizophrenia.

In their mice, the researchers used optogenetics to bioengineer excitatory and inhibitory nerve cells in the parts of the brain responsible for social function to fire on command. That is, using different frequencies of light they could bias excitability. They then introduced them into social environments and tested them against a control group.

The researchers found that when they amped up the excitability in their optogenitically modified mice, the test subjects became almost instantly antisocial--and they also exhibited that heretofore inexplicable gamma-oscillation pattern in their brain waves. When the researchers restored balance by turning up the inhibitory nerve cell firing, the mice regained a significant amount of social function almost immediately.

Of course, this is significant because it might just get at the root of antisocial behavior brought on by social disorders like autism and schizophrenia. From a nervous system standpoint, mice and humans aren’t all that different (it’s thought that we shared a common ancestor some 75 million years ago). So these findings could be quite relevant to research into treatment for those suffering from schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders.

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11 Comments

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Ragnar_Darude

07/27/11 at 10:11 pm

Yeah Im being picky here, but the author has mis-used the concept of "antisocial". That word means, whitin the field of psychiatry, behaviour that is the opposite to "prosocial", for example stealing, being violent etc. The words you're looking for is social deficit, lack of approach behaviour or introversion among others. Sufferers of autism or schizophrenia don't have to be violent, but they would be generally uninterested in other people or having difficulties understanding others.

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i4got

07/27/11 at 10:13 pm

Currently I take medication that reduces overall nerve firing in my brain to deal with the symptoms of my schizophrenia, if this research leads to more targeted drugs that only reduce the nerve firing in the specific sections I'm all for it. Not only would that be a better treatment for my disease, it could also lead to a cure for autism.

Brohoof for these broctors right here!

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Ellenik

07/28/11 at 8:05 am

I think there is a pretty scary side effect to this experiment; it has turned those mice into rats!

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Delkomatic

07/28/11 at 8:35 am

I got to say so dont get mad cuz its just a joke. But! Will this cure women being completely crazy all the time?

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michaelgorby

07/28/11 at 1:53 pm

Wait, I thought the soul is what gave beings their character traits. That's why the soul is judged in the afterlife... could it be that the brain is fully reducible to just physical material phenomena... now why would all those nice people mislead us into fear for all those millenia...?

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bmiddleton2

07/28/11 at 11:32 pm

@michaelgorby

1 Corinthians 15:44 ESV

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Matthew 10:28 ESV

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Romans 8:23 ESV

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

I would say that all of these Bible verses point to both the body and the soul being parts of the whole man. I believe the whole man (his thoughts on the inside, and the deeds of the flesh) will be judged. And I believe that the Bible warns us to be wary of our flesh. So maybe that's what the nice people were talking about...

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dorin

07/29/11 at 3:46 am

Delkomatic that is funny as hell it is so true women are complete crazy all the time whats up with that.lol!!!!

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nebulation

07/29/11 at 9:53 pm

This is a great discovery! These scientists should take this research very seriously so that we can get down to the bottom of social behavior from people and drugs or other things can be developed to help people out socially!!!

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thumbpick

08/01/11 at 11:17 am

These Caltech researchers may be able to toggle aggressive behavior on and off by light pulses, but it's not the answer to humane behavior.

Behavior, for the most part, is under control of the conscious mind. But, when one is dealing with abnormal behavior - neurotic and psychotic - it is directly driven by the subconscious mind. And, it's not caused by any type of gene or chemical imbalance. It is caused by trauma which has been recorded in the subconscious part of memory. This memory is different than conscious memory, which is under conscious control. This is the main reason why one, generally, cannot control his reactions to certain stimulus and events that happen daily.

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thumbpick

08/02/11 at 8:32 am

Sorry, I meant to write "human behavior" not "humane behavior".

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