SAN DIEGO, CA — Research in humans and animal models points to potential biological and genetic mechanisms contributing to the diversity of behaviors seen in autism. The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2022, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.
Autism, also referred to as autism spectrum disorder, constitutes a diverse group of conditions related to brain development. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 1 in 44 children in the U.S. is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, with the diagnosis being four times more common in boys than girls. New research is offering better understanding of how natural genetic variation impacts brain development and gives rise to the spectrum of behaviors associated with autism and may contribute to more individualized approaches for supporting people with autism.
Today’s new findings show that:
“Studies like those presented today confirm that autism is driven by sources of genetic variation that naturally exist in the human population,” says Nicola Grissom, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota who studies individual and sex differences in motivated behavior and executive function in mouse models. “A better understanding of the genetic components of autism, and appreciation of the neurodiversity occurring naturally among people, may help combat the stigma that still exists around autism.”
This research was supported by national funding agencies including the National Institutes of Health and private funding organizations. Find out more about autism and brain development on BrainFacts.org.
Press Conference Summary
- Autism spectrum disorders are a diverse group of disorders characterized by different genetic variations influencing brain development.
- Natural genetic variability in the human population may lead to the spectrum of behaviors associated with autism diagnosis and contribute to differential rates of diagnosis and symptomology in males and females.
Defining Patterns of Sex-Differential Expression in the Human Cortex During Prenatal Development and the Intersections With Autism Spectrum Disorder
Donna Werling, dwerling@wisc.edu, abstract 176.05
Mapping Autism Spectrum Disorder Behavioral Endophenotypes to Genomic Regions in Thousands of Families
Nathaniel Stockham, stockham@stanford.edu, abstract 176.01
Mapping the Neuroconnectional Landscape in Autism via Cross-Species fMRI
Marco Pagani, marco.pagani@iit.it, abstract 604.08