ESR2 and Anxiety: Estrogen receptor β (ERβ), together with estrogen receptor α (ERα), is widely expressed in various areas of the brain (Bodo and Rissman, 2006; Phan et al., 2015), and ERβ specifically has been reported to be associated with ASD development and anxiety-related behaviors (Krezel et al., 2001; Crider et al., 2014; Zou et al., 2017).