Where Have All the Axons Gone in Autism?
Okay, I’ll admit, the study of neurite (i.e., axon and dendrite) formation isn’t my area of expertise. My background is more in neuropathology and genetics. But I had been working […]
Tag Archives: neocortex
Maternal Inflammation during Pregnancy, Autism, & Big Brains
A paper published this month in Stem Cell Reports by Le Belle et al. out of UCLA suggests that maternal inflammation during pregnancy, such as occurs during an acute illness […]
Sex Differences, GABA Signaling, and Autism Risk
Awhile back, I wrote about how the neurotransmitter, GABA, can behave as an excitatory signal in certain cell types rather than the inhibitory signal with which we’re more familiar. As […]
Excitatory GABA
gamma-Aminobutyric Acid, otherwise more commonly known by its acronym, “GABA,” is a primary neurotransmitter of the central nervous system. While most of us may be more familiar with the concept […]
International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) 2014
From left to right: Ami Klin, Laura Klinger, Francesca Happé, and Joe Piven. My fiancé, Manny Casanova, and I just finished attending this year’s International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) […]
The “Race” to Discover Cortical Dysplasias in Autism
An article was published recently in The New England Journal of Medicine by Eric Courchesne’s group, investigating what is essentially evidence of dysplasia (underdevelopment due to prolonged progenitor proliferation at […]
Preliminary Data: Schizophrenia and Brain-related Genes May Have Higher Mobile Element Content Similar to that Seen in Autism
We recently wrote and submitted a Letter to the Editor of Neuron in response to the recent article by Bundo et al. (2014) reporting increased LINE1 retrotransposition in schizophrenia genomes. […]
Is the Female Brain More Resilient against Harmful Mutations?
It has long been a topic of debate and discussion whether the lop-sided rates of autism diagnosis (males > females) reflects real gender variations in phenotype or simply diagnostic bias. […]
Heterotopias in the Brain: When Neurons Get a Little Lost
I’ve talked a little about heterotopias in the past although I haven’t focused on them considerably. But that’s about to change today because they are fascinating occurrences which happen occasionally […]
Review of the Recent Study, “Increased L1 Retrotransposition in the Neuronal Genome in Schizophrenia”
Now, for repeat readers, you probably know I have a professional interest in the topic of transposable elements. So it should come as no surprise that a recent article published […]
Science Over a Cuppa 
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