Behavioral and magnetic resonance spectroscopic studies...(abstr)

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Physiol Behav 2002 Mar;75(3):403-10

Behavioral and magnetic resonance spectroscopic studies in the rat

hyperserotonemic model of autism.

Kahne D, Tudorica A, Borella A, Shapiro L, stone F, Huang W,

Whitaker-Azmitia PM.

Department of Psychology, SUNY at Stony Brook, 11794-2500, Stony Brook, NY,

USA

Autism is classified as a pervasive developmental disorder, with several

cardinal features including sensory disturbances, obsessive-compulsive-like

behavior, lack of bonding to caregivers and motor disturbances. To date,

there is a lack of an animal model of the disease. The current work is aimed

at producing such a model by treating developing rat pups with a

serotonergic

agonist, 5-methoxytryptamine (5-MT; 1 mg/kg) during development (from

gestational age 12 days to postnatal day 20), thus mimicking one of the

hallmark neurochemical features of the illness-increases in the

neurotransmitter, serotonin. Animals were then tested in behavioral

paradigms

that may resemble the human illness. Treated rat pups were found to be

overreactive to auditory or tactile sensory stimuli, to display changes in

the negative geotaxic test of motor development, to show lack of

separation-induced vocalizations when their dam was removed and to show

decreased alternation in the spontaneous alternation task. As well, the

animals showed metabolic abnormalities in the brain using in vivo proton

magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which are consistent with those observed in

autistic children. In summary, the model we are proposing shows some of the

behavioral and metabolic features of autism, as well as being produced

through alteration of a neurochemical system known to be altered in autism.