Posted in FMR1, Somatosensory cortex, Thalamus, tagged autism, Autism spectrum, Brain, Cognition, critical period, Development, Mental disorder, Mutation, pruning, Rett Syndrome, sensory overload, synaptic plasticity, synaptic pruning on February 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
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If you have a minute, check out this “Autism Sensory Overload Simulation” video to get a feel for the perceptual difficulties experienced by people with autism spectrum disorders. A recent article, “Critical Period Plasticity Is Disrupted in the Barrel Cortex of Fmr1 Knockout Mice” [doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.01.024] provides some clues to the [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Add new tag, Brain, Cognition, cognitive development, Development, evolution, Genetics, Human behavior, Intelligence, Mutation, Population genetics, Psychology, Twin, University of Edinburgh on January 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Just a pointer to onetime University of Edinburgh Professor C.H. Waddington’s 1972 Gifford Lecture on framing the genes vs. environment debate of human behavior. Although Waddington is famous for his work on population genetics and evolutionary change over time, several of his concepts are experiencing some resurgence in the neuroimaging and psychological development literatures these [...]
Posted in HDACs, MECP2, tagged autism, Autism spectrum, Development, DNA, DNA methylation, Epigenetics, Gene, Gene expression, HDAC, Mental disorder, Mental health, Mutation, Rett Syndrome on September 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
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The cognitive and emotional impairments in the autism spectrum disorders can be difficult for parents and siblings to understand and cope with. Here are some graphics and videos that might assist in understanding how genetic mutations and epigenetic modifications can lead to various forms of social withdrawl commonly observed in the autism spectrum [...]
Posted in Cerebellum, Motor cortex, Thalamus, Thap1, Torsin A, tagged Biology, Development, Diffusion MRI, Disease, DNA, Dystonia, Gene, Genetics, Mental disorder, Mutation, White matter on August 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
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Within the genetic news flow, there is often, and rightly so, much celebration when a gene for a disease is identified. This is indeed an important first step, but often, the slogging from that point to a treatment – and the many small breakthroughs along the way – can go unnoticed. One reason [...]
Posted in SEZ6, tagged Development, Mental disorder, Mouse, Mutation, Neuron, Seizure, SEZ6, synaptogenesis on January 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
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If you like gardening, the doldrums of winter can be dreary indeed. Although I’d never admit to it, my neighbors might swear to having seen me outside strangely (pathetically) counting the number of branches on my icicle-laden roses and rhododendrons. In any case, I do admit to spending way too much time forlornly [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged autism, Mental disorder, Mental health, Mutation on April 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Mike Wigler’s team at Cold Spring Harbor Labs finds that spontaneous mutations are more prevalent in patients with autism than in patients with a first-degree relative also with autism. Perhaps the comparative genomic hybridization methods applied in this case will prove useful in sifting our spontaneous vs. ancestral forms of genetic variation in other [...]
