Memantine rescues repetitive self-grooming and jumping in VPA mice. (A–D) VPA mice (8–16 weeks) display enhanced self-grooming and jumping, but normal digging in a novel and bright (~120 lux) environment, as measured by increased levels of self-grooming time, jumping bouts, digging time, and number of marbles buried (stainless steel, 2 cm in diameter) in VPA mice moved to a novel soundproof room 30 min before the test. (s. e. m., n = 11 for control (VPA-untreated) mice and 9 for VPA mice, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ns, not significant; unpaired Student's t-test for self-grooming and digging, Mann–Whitney test for jumping). (E–H) Memantine (10 mg/kg, i.p.) administered to VPA mice 30 min before the test rescues repetitive self-grooming and jumping in VPA mice, but has no effect on control (VPA-untreated) mice. Note that memantine strongly suppresses digging in both VPA and control (VPA-untreated) mice. (s. e. m., n = 9 for control + Sal/Mem and 10 for VPA + Sal/Mem, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ns, not significant; Kruskal–Wallis test, Wilcoxon test, and Student's t-test).