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 […]
Tag Archives: neuron
The Essence of Christopher Gillberg’s E.S.S.E.N.C.E. Theory
“While in the past, child psychiatry had little interest in operationalised diagnosis, recent trends have made categorical diagnosis an integral part of everyday clinical and research practice. So focused are […]
Calcium Signaling in Neurodevelopment: Relevance to Autism, Epilepsy, Schizophrenia, & Bipolar
Calcium ions (Ca2+) are the most widely used signal transduction molecules in living organisms, ranging from prokaryotes to complex eukaryotes such as ourselves. Calcium levels must be tightly maintained within […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
A New Study Finds that the Jelly, Not the Sponge, May Lie at the Base of the Animal Evolutionary Tree
I’m afraid, my dear friends, I will have to bow out of writing an extensive blog for this week. Not only are my knees figuratively giving way under the weight […]
Thoughts on the Recent Parikshak et al. Study, “Integrative Functional Genomic Analyses Implicate Specific Molecular Pathways and Circuits in Autism”
“Synapse” is a ref-flag word nowadays in many sects of autism research. For Dan Geschwind of UCLA, a highly intelligent and very talented molecular biologist, this is definitely the term […]
Science Over a Cuppa 
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