Fig. 2. Heterogeneity of ASD etiology and symptoms necessitate multiple models. ASD is portrayed as continuous spectrums of several traits including core and comorbid symptoms, which is schematically represented as sunlight through the prism. Regardless of the extreme heterogeneity, we may re-group ASD patients into several categories with shared symptoms and molecular changes in the future, which we like to call "Rainbow" of ASD. In this sense, we might need multiplicity of animal models, which represents one or two groups of ASD more closely than others, possibly with some overlap with other models. The VPA animal model of ASD will be a representative member of "Rainbow" of animal models for ASD, which might be helpful for the development of group-specific drugs against the devastating disorder.
