Evolution of Autism-like Behaviors in cavefish: an emerging discovery platform for Autism treatments

sorry for late reply. I was working with lab members... You are right that the adhesion to the object your friend shows is a part of autistic symptom, though differs from OCD. In general, autistic patients show a difficulty to balance attentions--pay attention to particular stimulus/object and stick to it but are not interested in somethings even it is essential for the life. As you mention, cavefish show strong adhesion to the vibrating object (VAB) and stick to it. We believe this is one of the similarity to autistic patient.

My autistic friend (now in his late thirties) has always had a habit of almost constantly shaking a shoelace attached to a clothes clip and staring at it. This object is an indivisible part of him and the behavior a kind of fixation (much like some sort of an OCD). I just realized this behavior reminds me very much of your experiments with toothbrush when you were studying VAB in cavefish. So I'm wondering if VAB isn't maybe related to autism-like behaviors in cavefish or one of them.... I wonder how this sounds to you?

Please ask any of questions!