autism tagged posts

Ground breaking study published in JAMA Pediatrics looks at outcomes of 145,456 pregnancies after antidepressant use. Photo : Thinkstock.

The findings are hugely important as 6-10% of pregnant women are currently being treated for depression with antidepressants. Prof. Bérard, an expert in the fields of pharmaceutical safety during pregnancy, came to her conclusions after reviewing data covering 145,456 pregnancies. “The variety of causes of autism remain unclear, but studies have shown that both genetics and environment can play a role,” she explained...

This is an image of a human brain, courtesy of Michael Halassa.The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) surrounds the thalamus (pictured in red, with a switchboard in the background).

Findings help explain how the brain pays attention to what’s important and how neural circuits may be ‘broken’ in attention-deficit disorders. Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center say they have added to evidence that the thalamic reticular nucleus or TRN in the central brain, is likely responsible for the ability to routinely and seamlessly multitask.

The process, they suggest, is done by individual TRN neurons that act like a “switchboard,” continuously filtering sensory information and shifting more or less attention onto one sense – like sight – while relatively blocking out distracting information from o...

Mice lacking a set of receptors in one type of neuron in the brain developed compulsive, anti-social behaviors. Parvalbumin-positive interneurons, thought to be important in general cognition and generating certain types of oscillatory wave patterns in the brain. “We found that without this receptor in the parvalbumin cells, mice have many serious behavioral deficits,” says Terrence Sejnowski, head of Salk’s Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, “And a lot of them really mimic closely what we see in schizophrenia.”

Scientists had previously discovered that when molecular signaling was disrupted in these cells during development, the brain’s networks didn’t form correctly...