Altered attentional processing in male and female rats in a prenatal valproic acid exposure model of autism spectrum disorder.

We studied rats prenatally exposed to valproic acid (VPA), an established rodent model of autism. Both male and female VPA rats had a range of attentional impairments with sex-specific characteristics. Importantly, with fixed rules, graded difficulty levels, and more time, VPA rats could be successfully trained on the attentional task. Our work validates the use of the VPA model in the quest for evaluating suitable therapeutic targets for improving attentional performance.