I read some interesting news regarding Autism Research which can be found here: Gene Expression Abnormalities in Autism Identified.
Eric Courchesne, the director of the Autism Center at UCSD, has identified abnormal genetic mechanisms in young autism patients. The abnormalities that were identified are related to early brain development and may contribute to the excess of neurons in autism patients.
“The genes that control the number of brain cells did not have the normal functional expression, and the level of gene expression that governs the pattern of neural organization across the prefrontal cortex is turned down. There are abnormal numbers and patterns of brain cells, and subsequently the pattern is disturbed,” Courchesne said. “This probably leads to too many brain cells in some locations, such as prefrontal cortex, but perhaps too few in other regions of cortex as well.”
The finding of this research coincide with information already known about Autism. Autism is highly heritable which suggests that it is a genetic disorder and these findings support that idea.
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| Eric Courchense |
“The genes that control the number of brain cells did not have the normal functional expression, and the level of gene expression that governs the pattern of neural organization across the prefrontal cortex is turned down. There are abnormal numbers and patterns of brain cells, and subsequently the pattern is disturbed,” Courchesne said. “This probably leads to too many brain cells in some locations, such as prefrontal cortex, but perhaps too few in other regions of cortex as well.”
The finding of this research coincide with information already known about Autism. Autism is highly heritable which suggests that it is a genetic disorder and these findings support that idea.
This is seriously interesting stuff man. Autism is extremely interesting to me so it's crazy to hear people are able to develop this kind of horrible illness.
Autism is horrible to see, I hope theres a cure for it sooner, great news.
mmm that's some good psychology news
That's impressive and good to see, maybe something can be done to prevent it now? Hopefully there will be additional research done in this area.
thx for information
That's some good news.
A good step towards learning more about Autism.