Does Autism/AS or an equivalent exist in non-human primates?

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I used to have a pet hedgehog and I like to joke that hedgehogs are autistics because they are solitary animals who like quiet environments, who have been know to throw tantrums (stomping around their cages and knocking things about) if their owner changes their routine or rearranges their cage. Not that I think all hedgehogs are autistics, but they share some traits.

I work on fruitflies and interestingly the topic I am currently doing research in has been recently potentially linked to autism in mice. Although autism is hugely complex and not obvious how it would be expressed in lower animals, certain autistic traits can be measured (such as sociability) and genetic studies done in mice (and even in flies) can identify genes involved. The only such study done in fruitflies has looked at the fragile X gene, which is one of the most common causes of mental retardation, but also accompanied by a high rate of autism (one of the few known causes of autism). Such flies have defects in learning behaviour (well documented by proven methods for measuring such traits) and also social defects. The latter experiments were done by isolating two flies in adjoining compartments and measuring how much time they spent at the interface (meshing) between the two compartments. The fragile X flies spent considerably less time at the interface (hence assumed to be less time interacting), which correlates with similar experiments in mice. To my eye as a fruitfly geneticist I am a little sceptical as to the validity of these experiments (with regards statistical significance and potential measurement errors), but it is interesting that animals as basic as a fly may be possible models for certain symptoms of autism at the very least. I am planning to run past my (slightly Aspie) boss at some point the possiblility of testing our mutant flies for autistic traits now that there is a potential link in mice, although repeating thing in flies already seen in mice has limited novelty. However, as flies are a lot easier and cheaper to work with, we could find out some things with a relatively small effort which could then be replicated in mice (and correlated with genome studies on autistic vs nt humans).

"Considering that in the wild, the social group is essential for survival with gorillas, chimps and the like, I wonder if such individuals would survive very long...sad thought. "

Pooh - now I forget which one said that. Anyway, correct me if I am misinformed, but my understanding is that the adult orangutan is mostly pretty non-gregarious.

In any case, an awful lot of herd animals including NT humans give of individuals who are solitary whether by choice or necessity; is the social group ESSENTIAL for survival, or a relative comfort issue?

Fasinating, TypOriginal. Great, informative post....


I am not writing specifically about primates. But I will write about one of the lambs I am looking after- Doll.

She is one of triplets, a shy, aloof lamb. When I try and pat her she shys away, though she is happy enough for me to bottle feed her.

The other 3 lambs are very social and love scratches and pats, even her very independent, adventurous brother who loves to do his own thing- he hangs around for scratches.

When I see the lambs together I often see the twins, and Dolls brother grazing together and sleeping together, and a few metres away is Doll. She is aloof towards peers her age for some reason.

She does seek adult sheep out a lot though. She was in the paddock with her mother for a week, but the mother died, and she rejoined the other bottle fed lambs.

There is a sick sheep in the paddock with the lambs, and Doll is often seen with her, and the other three lambs are together in a group not far away.

Not saying this is autism, but clearly there are animals that are less social than others, and also less oriented towards bonding with their peers. I am not really sure why she is that way though.

First off, lukemc1980- Welcome to Wrong Planet!

I, too, have often wondered about autism in animals. Some of the responses on this thread have been fascinating.

I once saw a cat on television- (it was one of those "candid camera" type shows)- and the cat was doing some movements that looked like stimming to me. It was very different from the usual cat movements.This was when I first asked myself whether or not animals can be autistic.

i found an article about apes an and disabilities and one of the described apes seem to have symptoms of an ASD