SFARI | SFARI Research Highlights

Person's Hand Checking Fever Of Sick Girl

Newly identified hypothalamic cells offer insight into the relationship between fever and autism

Catherine Dulac and her collaborators identified a population of cells in the hypothalamus that generate fever and influence the activity of brain areas associated with behavior during sickness, with implications for the effects of fever on social behavior in autism.

A woman and child getting a diagnosis via video chat

New assessment tool provides a remote telehealth approach to facilitate autism diagnosis during COVID-19 and beyond

So Hyun Kim, Catherine Lord and colleagues developed a new telehealth approach to autism assessment — the Brief Observation of Symptoms of Autism (BOSA) — for use during COVID-19 and beyond.

Molecule of oxytocin, a hormone released from the neurohypophysis

Oxytocin regulates changes in social brain circuits connectivity in a Cntnap2 mouse model of autism

Daniel Geschwind and colleagues showed that Cntnap2 knockout mice exhibit alterations in brain-wide connectivity related to social behaviors and that oxytocin within the nucleus accumbens regulates changes in connectivity.

Loss of Tsc1 in striatal neurons may contribute to altered motor behaviors in tuberous sclerosis complex and autism

Helen Bateup and colleagues showed that a loss of Tsc1 from striatal direct pathway neurons altered synaptic function and enhanced motor routine learning in mice. These findings suggest that changes in select types of striatal neurons may underlie altered motor behaviors in individuals with tuberous sclerosis complex and autism.

Machine-learning model provides estimates of cognitive ability for large-scale autism studies

Yufeng Cheng, Wendy Chung, Chang “April” Shu and their colleagues used machine-learning models to develop a method for large-scale studies to estimate cognitive ability in individuals with autism for whom formal IQ tests are not available.

A pregnant woman during a routine check up with her doctor.

Altered immune molecules during pregnancy and in the umbilical cord at birth predict later autism diagnoses

Ian Lipkin, Mady Hornig and colleagues showed that levels of immune molecules in mothers during pregnancy and in cord blood at birth are highly predictive of later autism diagnoses.

Synaptic imbalance and disrupted homeostatic plasticity in cortical circuits of Chd8 haploinsufficient mice

Laura Andreae, M. Albert Basson and collaborators showed that Chd8 haploinsufficiency in mice was linked to changes in excitation/inhibition balance and disrupted homeostatic plasticity of prefrontal circuits.

Alterations in sound processing in Cntnap2 rats provide insights into mechanisms of language-related disorders

SFARI Investigator Susanne Schmid and colleagues showed that loss of Cntnap2 in rats leads to immature-like delays in auditory cortex sound processing and overactive auditory neurons.