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

Matt M. -- Caltech researchers figured out that pulses of light cause aggression in mice to turn on and off while west coast scientists have been turning social behaviors on and off in mice. Why? Because this could have a huge implication for social disorders in people. Using optogenetics a team of Stanford researchers a untested hypothesis about social dysfunction. This hypothesis holds that social behaviors are linked to propensity of excitatory nerve cells. The researchers found that when ever they amped up the excitability in their optogenetically modified mice the test subjects became almost instantly antisocial, when the researchers restored balance by turning up the inhibitory nerve cell firing, the mice regained significant amounts of social function almost instantly.

            I'm really amazed that they could find out all this from just tests with mice. But However, I'm even more amazed that they found this by just pulses of light. I really hope this research will help people out with social disorders. I hope the hypothesis that Stanford has turns out to be right and they will eventually be able to transfer this research to help a human's brain and not just do it on a mouse.   Being able to use this as treatment for schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders could end up helping a lot of people.

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