Finally, predictive validity refers to the model’s ability to determine the effectiveness that interventions will have on a clinical population. A model of ASD with high predictive validity will respond (e.g. with a reduction in repetitive behaviors) to pharmaceuticals in similar manner to the patients they are intended to model. This is particularly challenging in autism models because there are no established treatment paradigms for the core symptoms in human autism clinics currently. Conceptually, interventions are not necessarily limited to drugs, but it is more difficult to assess the translational value of non-pharmacological therapies, such as environmental enrichment. Predictive validity can also refer to the penetrance of specific phenotypes, given a specific genetic mutation or other trigger (Belzung and Lemoine, 2011), but these data are seldom reported.
