Molecular Autism最新文献

{"title":"Correction: WDFY3 mutation alters laminar position and morphology of cortical neurons.","authors":"Zachary A Schaaf, Lyvin Tat, Noemi Cannizzaro, Alexios A Panoutsopoulos, Ralph Green, Thomas Rülicke, Simon Hippenmeyer, Konstantinos S Zarbalis","doi":"10.1186/s13229-023-00539-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-023-00539-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18733,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Autism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9887812/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10641168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Profiles of autism characteristics in thirteen genetic syndromes: a machine learning approach.","authors":"Natali Bozhilova, Alice Welham, Dawn Adams, Stacey Bissell, Hilgo Bruining, Hayley Crawford, Kate Eden, Lisa Nelson, Christopher Oliver, Laurie Powis, Caroline Richards, Jane Waite, Peter Watson, Hefin Rhys, Lucy Wilde, Kate Woodcock, Joanna Moss","doi":"10.1186/s13229-022-00530-5","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13229-022-00530-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Phenotypic studies have identified distinct patterns of autistic characteristics in genetic syndromes associated with intellectual disability (ID), leading to diagnostic uncertainty and compromised access to autism-related support. Previous research has tended to include small samples and diverse measures, which limits the generalisability of findings. In this study, we generated detailed profiles of autistic characteristics in a large sample of > 1500 individuals with rare genetic syndromes.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Profiles of autistic characteristics based on the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) scores were generated for thirteen genetic syndrome groups (Angelman n = 154, Cri du Chat n = 75, Cornelia de Lange n = 199, fragile X n = 297, Prader-Willi n = 278, Lowe n = 89, Smith-Magenis n = 54, Down n = 135, Sotos n = 40, Rubinstein-Taybi n = 102, 1p36 deletion n = 41, tuberous sclerosis complex n = 83 and Phelan-McDermid n = 35 syndromes). It was hypothesised that each syndrome group would evidence a degree of specificity in autistic characteristics. To test this hypothesis, a classification algorithm via support vector machine (SVM) learning was applied to scores from over 1500 individuals diagnosed with one of the thirteen genetic syndromes and autistic individuals who did not have a known genetic syndrome (ASD; n = 254). Self-help skills were included as an additional predictor.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Genetic syndromes were associated with different but overlapping autism-related profiles, indicated by the substantial accuracy of the entire, multiclass SVM model (55% correctly classified individuals). Syndrome groups such as Angelman, fragile X, Prader-Willi, Rubinstein-Taybi and Cornelia de Lange showed greater phenotypic specificity than groups such as Cri du Chat, Lowe, Smith-Magenis, tuberous sclerosis complex, Sotos and Phelan-McDermid. The inclusion of the ASD reference group and self-help skills did not change the model accuracy.</p><p><strong>Limitations: </strong>The key limitations of our study include a cross-sectional design, reliance on a screening tool which focuses primarily on social communication skills and imbalanced sample size across syndrome groups.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These findings replicate and extend previous work, demonstrating syndrome-specific profiles of autistic characteristics in people with genetic syndromes compared to autistic individuals without a genetic syndrome. This work calls for greater precision of assessment of autistic characteristics in individuals with genetic syndromes associated with ID.</p>","PeriodicalId":18733,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Autism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9837969/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9207926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Brain correlates of declarative memory atypicalities in autism: a systematic review of functional neuroimaging findings.","authors":"Pierre Desaunay,&nbsp;Bérengère Guillery,&nbsp;Edgar Moussaoui,&nbsp;Francis Eustache,&nbsp;Dermot M Bowler,&nbsp;Fabian Guénolé","doi":"10.1186/s13229-022-00525-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-022-00525-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The long-described atypicalities of memory functioning experienced by people with autism have major implications for daily living, academic learning, as well as cognitive remediation. Though behavioral studies have identified a robust profile of memory strengths and weaknesses in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), few works have attempted to establish a synthesis concerning their neural bases. In this systematic review of functional neuroimaging studies, we highlight functional brain asymmetries in three anatomical planes during memory processing between individuals with ASD and typical development. These asymmetries consist of greater activity of the left hemisphere than the right in ASD participants, of posterior brain regions-including hippocampus-rather than anterior ones, and presumably of the ventral (occipito-temporal) streams rather than the dorsal (occipito-parietal) ones. These functional alterations may be linked to atypical memory processes in ASD, including the pre-eminence of verbal over spatial information, impaired active maintenance in working memory, and preserved relational memory despite poor context processing in episodic memory.</p>","PeriodicalId":18733,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Autism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9832704/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9193339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Immune activation during pregnancy exacerbates ASD-related alterations in Shank3-deficient mice.","authors":"Ekaterina Atanasova, Andrea Pérez Arévalo, Ines Graf, Rong Zhang, Juergen Bockmann, Anne-Kathrin Lutz, Tobias M Boeckers","doi":"10.1186/s13229-022-00532-3","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13229-022-00532-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is mainly characterized by deficits in social interaction and communication and repetitive behaviors. Known causes of ASD are mutations of certain risk genes like the postsynaptic protein SHANK3 and environmental factors including prenatal infections.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>To analyze the gene-environment interplay in ASD, we combined the Shank3Δ11-/- ASD mouse model with maternal immune activation (MIA) via an intraperitoneal injection of polyinosinic/polycytidylic acid (Poly I:C) on gestational day 12.5. The offspring of the injected dams was further analyzed for autistic-like behaviors and comorbidities followed by biochemical experiments with a focus on synaptic analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We show that the two-hit mice exhibit excessive grooming and deficits in social behavior more prominently than the Shank3Δ11-/- mice. Interestingly, these behavioral changes were accompanied by an unexpected upregulation of postsynaptic density (PSD) proteins at excitatory synapses in striatum, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.</p><p><strong>Limitations: </strong>We found several PSD proteins to be increased in the two-hit mice; however, we can only speculate about possible pathways behind the worsening of the autistic phenotype in those mice.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>With this study, we demonstrate that there is an interplay between genetic susceptibility and environmental factors defining the severity of ASD symptoms. Moreover, we show that a general misbalance of PSD proteins at excitatory synapses is linked to ASD symptoms, making this two-hit model a promising tool for the investigation of the complex pathophysiology of neurodevelopmental disorders.</p>","PeriodicalId":18733,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Autism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9814193/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9207442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Patterns of connectome variability in autism across five functional activation tasks: findings from the LEAP project.","authors":"Tristan Looden,&nbsp;Dorothea L Floris,&nbsp;Alberto Llera,&nbsp;Roselyne J Chauvin,&nbsp;Tony Charman,&nbsp;Tobias Banaschewski,&nbsp;Declan Murphy,&nbsp;Andre F Marquand,&nbsp;Jan K Buitelaar,&nbsp;Christian F Beckmann","doi":"10.1186/s13229-022-00529-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-022-00529-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Autism spectrum disorder (autism) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition with pronounced behavioral, cognitive, and neural heterogeneities across individuals. Here, our goal was to characterize heterogeneity in autism by identifying patterns of neural diversity as reflected in BOLD fMRI in the way individuals with autism engage with a varied array of cognitive tasks.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>All analyses were based on the EU-AIMS/AIMS-2-TRIALS multisite Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP) with participants with autism (n = 282) and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 221) between 6 and 30 years of age. We employed a novel task potency approach which combines the unique aspects of both resting state fMRI and task-fMRI to quantify task-induced variations in the functional connectome. Normative modelling was used to map atypicality of features on an individual basis with respect to their distribution in neurotypical control participants. We applied robust out-of-sample canonical correlation analysis (CCA) to relate connectome data to behavioral data.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Deviation from the normative ranges of global functional connectivity was greater for individuals with autism compared to TD in each fMRI task paradigm (all tasks p < 0.001). The similarity across individuals of the deviation pattern was significantly increased in autistic relative to TD individuals (p < 0.002). The CCA identified significant and robust brain-behavior covariation between functional connectivity atypicality and autism-related behavioral features.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Individuals with autism engage with tasks in a globally atypical way, but the particular spatial pattern of this atypicality is nevertheless similar across tasks. Atypicalities in the tasks originate mostly from prefrontal cortex and default mode network regions, but also speech and auditory networks. We show how sophisticated modeling methods such as task potency and normative modeling can be used toward unravelling complex heterogeneous conditions like autism.</p>","PeriodicalId":18733,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Autism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9793684/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9107538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Inter-individual heterogeneity of functional brain networks in children with autism spectrum disorder.","authors":"Xiaonan Guo,&nbsp;Guangjin Zhai,&nbsp;Junfeng Liu,&nbsp;Yabo Cao,&nbsp;Xia Zhang,&nbsp;Dong Cui,&nbsp;Le Gao","doi":"10.1186/s13229-022-00535-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-022-00535-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with considerable clinical heterogeneity. This study aimed to explore the heterogeneity of ASD based on inter-individual heterogeneity of functional brain networks.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange database were used in this study for 105 children with ASD and 102 demographically matched typical controls (TC) children. Functional connectivity (FC) networks were first obtained for ASD and TC groups, and inter-individual deviation of functional connectivity (IDFC) from the TC group was then calculated for each individual with ASD. A k-means clustering algorithm was used to obtain ASD subtypes based on IDFC patterns. The FC patterns were further compared between ASD subtypes and the TC group from the brain region, network, and whole-brain levels. The relationship between IDFC and the severity of clinical symptoms of ASD for ASD subtypes was also analyzed using a support vector regression model.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Two ASD subtypes were identified based on the IDFC patterns. Compared with the TC group, the ASD subtype 1 group exhibited a hypoconnectivity pattern and the ASD subtype 2 group exhibited a hyperconnectivity pattern. IDFC for ASD subtype 1 and subtype 2 was found to predict the severity of social communication impairments and the severity of restricted and repetitive behaviors in ASD, respectively.</p><p><strong>Limitations: </strong>Only male children were selected for this study, which limits the ability to study the effects of gender and development on ASD heterogeneity.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These results suggest the existence of subtypes with different FC patterns in ASD and provide insight into the complex pathophysiological mechanism of clinical manifestations of ASD.</p>","PeriodicalId":18733,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Autism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9793594/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10799627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Personal victimization experiences of autistic and non-autistic children.","authors":"Natalie Libster,&nbsp;Azia Knox,&nbsp;Selin Engin,&nbsp;Daniel Geschwind,&nbsp;Julia Parish-Morris,&nbsp;Connie Kasari","doi":"10.1186/s13229-022-00531-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-022-00531-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Autistic children report higher levels of bullying victimization than their non-autistic peers. However, autistic children with fewer social difficulties, as measured on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), are more likely to report being bullied. Autistic children with stronger social skills may not only be more likely to identify and report incidents of bullying, but they may also be more likely to interact with their non-autistic peers, increasing their likelihood of being victimized. Autistic girls may be especially at-risk of experiencing bullying victimization, as a growing body of research suggests that autistic girls demonstrate fewer social difficulties and are more socially motivated than autistic boys. Here, we explored reported problems with peers and bullying victimization among a carefully matched sample of autistic and non-autistic boys and girls. Qualitative methods were further implemented to gain a more holistic understanding of the social experiences of autistic boys and girls.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This mixed-methods study analyzed the transcribed clinical evaluations of 58 autistic children (29 girls) matched to 42 non-autistic children (21 girls) on age and IQ. Within each diagnostic group, boys and girls were matched on ADOS severity score. We compared reported problems with peers and bullying victimization across sex and diagnosis. Among autistic children, we further examined whether ADOS social affect (SA), restricted repetitive behaviors, and severity scores predicted problems with peers and bullying victimization. We then identified themes related to personal experiences of victimization.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Autistic children were more likely than non-autistic children to have experienced bullying victimization, and autistic children with lower ADOS severity and SA scores were more likely to report having been bullied. While autistic boys and girls reported similar levels of bullying victimization, qualitative analyses revealed sex differences in the underlying causes of peer conflict.</p><p><strong>Limitations: </strong>This study was a secondary data analysis. The standardized set of questions on the ADOS limited the amount of information that children provided about their peer relationships, and variations in follow-up questions may have influenced children's responses.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Although autism symptomatology places autistic children at greater risk for bullying victimization compared to their non-autistic peers, greater social challenges among autistic children are associated with lower rates of victimization. This study further highlights the importance of using mixed-methods approaches to discover nuances in the social experiences of autistic girls and boys that may become opportunities for support.</p>","PeriodicalId":18733,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Autism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9790117/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9329217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Autism spectrum disorder symptom expression in individuals with 3q29 deletion syndrome.","authors":"Rebecca M Pollak,&nbsp;Jordan E Pincus,&nbsp;T Lindsey Burrell,&nbsp;Joseph F Cubells,&nbsp;Cheryl Klaiman,&nbsp;Melissa M Murphy,&nbsp;Celine A Saulnier,&nbsp;Elaine F Walker,&nbsp;Stormi Pulver White,&nbsp;Jennifer G Mulle","doi":"10.1186/s13229-022-00533-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-022-00533-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The 1.6 Mb 3q29 deletion is associated with neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric phenotypes, including a 19-fold increased risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous work by our team identified elevated social disability in this population via parent-report questionnaires. However, clinical features of ASD in this population have not been explored in detail.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Thirty-one individuals with 3q29 deletion syndrome (3q29del, 61.3% male) were evaluated using two gold-standard clinical ASD evaluations: the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2), and the Autism Diagnostic Interview, Revised (ADI-R). Four matched comparators for each subject were ascertained from the National Database for Autism Research. Item-level scores on the ADOS-2 and ADI-R were compared between subjects with 3q29del and matched comparators.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Subjects with 3q29del and no ASD (3q29del-ASD) had greater evidence of social disability compared to typically developing (TD) comparison subjects across the ADOS-2. Subjects with 3q29del and ASD (3q29del + ASD) were largely indistinguishable from non-syndromic ASD (nsASD) subjects on the ADOS-2. 3q29del + ASD performed significantly better on social communication on the ADI-R than nsASD (3q29 + ASD mean = 11.36; nsASD mean = 15.70; p = 0.01), and this was driven by reduced deficits in nonverbal communication (3q29 + ASD mean = 1.73; nsASD mean = 3.63; p = 0.03). 3q29del + ASD reported significantly later age at the first two-word phrase compared to nsASD (3q29del + ASD mean = 43.89 months; nsASD mean = 37.86 months; p = 0.01). However, speech delay was not related to improved nonverbal communication in 3q29del + ASD.</p><p><strong>Limitations: </strong>There were not enough TD comparators with ADI-R data in NDAR to include in the present analysis. Additionally, our relatively small sample size made it difficult to assess race and ethnicity effects.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>3q29del is associated with significant social disability, irrespective of ASD diagnosis. 3q29del + ASD have similar levels of social disability to nsASD, while 3q29del-ASD have significantly increased social disability compared to TD individuals. However, social communication is reasonably well preserved in 3q29del + ASD relative to nsASD. It is critical that verbal ability and social disability be examined separately in this population to ensure equal access to ASD and social skills evaluations and services.</p>","PeriodicalId":18733,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Autism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9789637/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10452601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Experience-dependent changes in hippocampal spatial activity and hippocampal circuit function are disrupted in a rat model of Fragile X Syndrome.","authors":"Antonis Asiminas,&nbsp;Sam A Booker,&nbsp;Owen R Dando,&nbsp;Zrinko Kozic,&nbsp;Daisy Arkell,&nbsp;Felicity H Inkpen,&nbsp;Anna Sumera,&nbsp;Irem Akyel,&nbsp;Peter C Kind,&nbsp;Emma R Wood","doi":"10.1186/s13229-022-00528-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-022-00528-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a common single gene cause of intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder. Cognitive inflexibility is one of the hallmarks of FXS with affected individuals showing extreme difficulty adapting to novel or complex situations. To explore the neural correlates of this cognitive inflexibility, we used a rat model of FXS (Fmr1^-/y).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We recorded from the CA1 in Fmr1^-/y and WT littermates over six 10-min exploration sessions in a novel environment-three sessions per day (ITI 10 min). Our recordings yielded 288 and 246 putative pyramidal cells from 7 WT and 7 Fmr1^-/y rats, respectively.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>On the first day of exploration of a novel environment, the firing rate and spatial tuning of CA1 pyramidal neurons was similar between wild-type (WT) and Fmr1^-/y rats. However, while CA1 pyramidal neurons from WT rats showed experience-dependent changes in firing and spatial tuning between the first and second day of exposure to the environment, these changes were decreased or absent in CA1 neurons of Fmr1^-/y rats. These findings were consistent with increased excitability of Fmr1^-/y CA1 neurons in ex vivo hippocampal slices, which correlated with reduced synaptic inputs from the medial entorhinal cortex. Lastly, activity patterns of CA1 pyramidal neurons were dis-coordinated with respect to hippocampal oscillatory activity in Fmr1^-/y rats.</p><p><strong>Limitations: </strong>It is still unclear how the observed circuit function abnormalities give rise to behavioural deficits in Fmr1^-/y rats. Future experiments will focus on this connection as well as the contribution of other neuronal cell types in the hippocampal circuit pathophysiology associated with the loss of FMRP. It would also be interesting to see if hippocampal circuit deficits converge with those seen in other rodent models of intellectual disability.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In conclusion, we found that hippocampal place cells from Fmr1^-/y rats show similar spatial firing properties as those from WT rats but do not show the same experience-dependent increase in spatial specificity or the experience-dependent changes in network coordination. Our findings offer support to a network-level origin of cognitive deficits in FXS.</p>","PeriodicalId":18733,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Autism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9764562/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10456891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Brainstem white matter microstructure is associated with hyporesponsiveness and overall sensory features in autistic children.","authors":"Olivia Surgent, Ali Riaz, Karla K Ausderau, Nagesh Adluru, Gregory R Kirk, Jose Guerrero-Gonzalez, Emily C Skaletski, Steven R Kecskemeti, Douglas C Dean Iii, Susan Ellis Weismer, Andrew L Alexander, Brittany G Travers","doi":"10.1186/s13229-022-00524-3","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13229-022-00524-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Elevated or reduced responses to sensory stimuli, known as sensory features, are common in autistic individuals and often impact quality of life. Little is known about the neurobiological basis of sensory features in autistic children. However, the brainstem may offer critical insights as it has been associated with both basic sensory processing and core features of autism.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and parent-report of sensory features were acquired from 133 children (61 autistic children with and 72 non-autistic children, 6-11 years-old). Leveraging novel DWI processing techniques, we investigated the relationship between sensory features and white matter microstructure properties (free-water-elimination-corrected fractional anisotropy [FA] and mean diffusivity [MD]) in precisely delineated brainstem white matter tracts. Follow-up analyses assessed relationships between microstructure and sensory response patterns/modalities and analyzed whole brain white matter using voxel-based analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Results revealed distinct relationships between brainstem microstructure and sensory features in autistic children compared to non-autistic children. In autistic children, more prominent sensory features were generally associated with lower MD. Further, in autistic children, sensory hyporesponsiveness and tactile responsivity were strongly associated with white matter microstructure in nearly all brainstem tracts. Follow-up voxel-based analyses confirmed that these relationships were more prominent in the brainstem/cerebellum, with additional sensory-brain findings in the autistic group in the white matter of the primary motor and somatosensory cortices, the occipital lobe, the inferior parietal lobe, and the thalamic projections.</p><p><strong>Limitations: </strong>All participants communicated via spoken language and acclimated to the sensory environment of an MRI session, which should be considered when assessing the generalizability of this work to the whole of the autism spectrum.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These findings suggest unique brainstem white matter contributions to sensory features in autistic children compared to non-autistic children. The brainstem correlates of sensory features underscore the potential reflex-like nature of behavioral responses to sensory stimuli in autism and have implications for how we conceptualize and address sensory features in autistic populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":18733,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Autism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2022-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9762648/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9698789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}