Autistic Consumer Audit of UC Davis MIND Institute’s Mutant Angelman Mice and Their Translational Value Toward the Human Autistic Experience

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Kupferstein, H., Chau, V., & Watts, C. (2023). Autistic Consumer Audit of UC Davis MIND Institute’s Mutant Angelman Mice and Their Translational Value Toward the Human Autistic Experience. Journal of Humanistic Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678231188539

Journal or book title
Journal of Humanistic Psychology
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Article number
00221678231188539
Publication date: 20 Jul 2023 Added to AutiHub: 7 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
3
Publication authors identified as autistic
3 / 3 (100.0%)
  1. Henny Kupferstein *
  2. Valerie Chau *
  3. Courtney Watts *

Abstract

On March 10, 2022, six researchers in affiliation with the UC Davis MIND Institute published a mouse gait study in the Autism Research journal, the official journal of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR). Our team of Autistic scientists set about conducting this consumer audit to evaluate any conflict(s) of interest between the study topic, choice of journal publication, and grant award agenda. To evaluate the impact factor of translational research, we investigated the researchers’ strident claims that genetically modified mutant Angelman syndrome mice (“AS mice models”) may contribute to the advancement of discoveries of behavioral and cognitive abnormalities in intellectually disabled and developmentally disabled (ID/DD) people, such as Autistics. As a result of our exhaustive review of both broad and narrow claims, a full retraction request is made in our recommendation to the publishers of the Autism Research journal, John Wiley & Sons. In conclusion, we strongly recommend that speculative claims about rodent models and translational research for Autism should not be considered meritorious of funding from the National Institutes of Health. Our grassroots initiative is aimed at ameliorating the damaging stereotypes within the medical pathology paradigm under which Autistic people are studied as abnormal human variants under the disease model. Finally, we ask that UC Davis’ MIND Institute cease and desist all rodent model research with the aims of investigating the pathogenic mechanism that is presumed to be underlying Autistic behavioral expression.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 17:02.

Cited references
41
With a DOI
33
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
8
11 / 41 (26.8%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
8 / 41 (19.5%)
References with detected author names
34 / 41 (82.9%)
Without detected author names
7
Without a structured title
8
Without a stable identifier
8
References with raw author names still to review
7
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
157
From DOI or external metadata
157
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
7
66 / 157 (42.0%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 91 / 157 (58.0%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
24 / 157 (15.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 24 / 66 (36.4%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 18 / 143 (12.6%).
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