THURSDAY, Nov. 21, 2013 (HealthDay News) – Two research teams say they have pinpointed how changes in genes linked to autism act together to disrupt normal brain development.
Their studies, published Nov. 21 in the journal Cell, represent a leap forward in understanding the complex condition, said an expert who was not involved with the research.
“This gives us a moment in time when genetic risk for autism actually gets put into motion,” said Robert Ring, a neuroscientist and chief science officer for the nonprofit advocacy group Autism Speaks. “This is very important.”
That two research groups looking at different sets of genes came to the same conclusion “gives a lot of validity to the finding,” Ring said.
Autism – which impairs the ability to communicate, regulate behavior and relate to others – is thought to affect about 1 in 88 children in the United States.
The mutations appear to come into play in mid-pregnancy. They interrupt the formation of specific cells that connect brain layers in a region that controls movement, sensory perception, conscious thought and language.
The changes appear to cause a sort of faulty wiring of the brain before birth, the researchers said.
They also said their findings might explain why early intervention programs, which enroll kids as young as 1 year old, help children with autism. Since their brains are still developing, they might be capable of correcting or compensating for some of these bad connections.
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The researchers stressed, however, that the findings probably don’t explain all cases of autism.
“These gene mutations definitely contribute to autism in some people,” said Neelroop Parikshak, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the second study. “[But] we don’t know how much in a given individual.”