#thebrainproject

Artist Lance Freitag was inspired by our exposure to the fears we have had in the past and the fears we will face in the future. The past has always had a way of haunting the human mind with the times we have gone through and the endless blurs and anger of words that are written, said, and violently put upon us. We move through that to our futures of peace and life in the end. You can choose to let this get in the way of your life, or you can take what you have and destroy what destroys you. Still here.

She started her graduate work with the Markrams by searching the literature for prospective animal models. They agreed that the one most like human autism involved rats prenatally exposed to an epilepsy drug called valproic acid (VPA; brand name, Depakote). Like other “autistic” rats, VPA rats show aberrant social behavior and increased repetitive behaviors like excessive self-grooming.