Daily oscillation of the excitation/inhibition ratio is disrupted in two mouse models of autism.

Alterations to the excitation/inhibition (E/I) ratio are postulated to underlie behavioral phenotypes in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients and mouse models. However, in wild type mice the E/I ratio is not constant, but instead oscillates across the 24-h day. Therefore, we tested whether E/I regulation, rather than the overall E/I ratio, is disrupted in two ASD-related mouse lines: KO and BTBR, models of syndromic and idiopathic ASD, respectively.