to nucleus accumbens (NAc) projections could encode and predict key features of social interaction in wild type mice (Gunaydin et al., 2014). Similarly, Felix-Ortix and Tye revealed the role of projections from the basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA) to the ventral hippocampus (vHPC) in two different social interaction tests (Felix-Ortiz and Tye, 2014). Few reports have investigated the circuit-level mechanisms underlying autism-like behaviors in genetically modified autism models with strong construct validity. Therefore, the combination of optogenetics and CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing tools in ASD models is expected to produce significant insight into whether there are common circuits disrupted in ASD models with different genetic defects.
