Many individuals with ASD experience auditory difficulties.

Exposure to VPA is associated with increased risk of ASD and is used as an animal model of ASD.

In control rats, exposure to pure tones resulted in clear tonotopic bands of c-Fos-positive neurons in auditory nuclei.

In VPA-exposed rats, pure tone stimulation resulted in significantly more c-Fos-positive neurons in auditory nuclei.

VPA-exposure was associated with enlargement and displacement of c-Fos tonotopic bands in auditory brainstem nuclei.