Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
Physics and Astronomy department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Int J Dev Neurosci. 2023 Aug;83(5):399-416. doi: 10.1002/jdn.10260. Epub 2023 May 28.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by core symptoms including impairment in social communication and restrictive and repetitive behaviors and interests. Music has emerged in the past decade as an intervention therapy for children with ASD. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of music on cognition impairments in the valproic acid (VPA) rat model of autism. The VPA was administered for animal modeling of autism on embryonic day 12.5 (E12.5) (600 mg/kg). Male and female pups were sub divided into four main groups (Saline.Non-music, VPA.Non-music, Saline.Music, and VPA.Music). The rats in the music groups were exposed to Mozart's piano sonata K.448 for 30 days (4 h/day), from postnatal day (PND) 21 to 50. Autistic-like behaviors were tested using a social interaction, the Morris water maze (MWM), and a passive avoidance tasks at the end of the PND 50. Our results demonstrated that VPA-exposed rat pups had significantly lower sociability and social memory performance compared with the saline-exposed rats in both sexes. VPA-exposed rat pups exhibited learning and memory impairments in the MWM and passive avoidance tasks. Our results demonstrated that music improved sociability in VPA-exposed rats, especially in males. Furthermore, our findings revealed that music improved learning impairments in VPA-exposed male rats in MWM task. In addition, music improved spatial memory impairments in VPA-exposed rats of both sexes. We also found that music improved passive avoidance memory impairments in VPA-exposed rats of both sexes, especially in females. More investigation in future studies are needed.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是一种神经发育障碍，其核心症状包括社交沟通障碍、限制和重复行为和兴趣。在过去的十年中，音乐已成为自闭症儿童的干预治疗方法。本研究旨在评估音乐对自闭症丙戊酸（VPA）大鼠模型认知障碍的影响。VPA 用于在胚胎第 12.5 天（E12.5）（600mg/kg）进行自闭症动物建模。雄性和雌性幼崽被分为四个主要组（盐水.非音乐、VPA.非音乐、盐水.音乐和 VPA.音乐）。音乐组的大鼠接受莫扎特钢琴奏鸣曲 K.448 暴露 30 天（4 小时/天），从出生后第 21 天到第 50 天。在 PND50 结束时，使用社交互动、莫里斯水迷宫（MWM）和被动回避任务测试自闭症样行为。我们的结果表明，与盐水暴露的大鼠相比，VPA 暴露的幼鼠在两性中均表现出社交能力和社交记忆能力明显降低。VPA 暴露的幼鼠在 MWM 和被动回避任务中表现出学习和记忆障碍。我们的结果表明，音乐改善了 VPA 暴露大鼠的社交能力，尤其是雄性。此外，我们的研究结果表明，音乐改善了 VPA 暴露雄性大鼠在 MWM 任务中的学习障碍。此外，音乐改善了两性 VPA 暴露大鼠的空间记忆障碍。我们还发现音乐改善了两性 VPA 暴露大鼠的被动回避记忆障碍，尤其是雌性。未来的研究需要更多的调查。
