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Oct 7, 2016

Single-neuron and genetic correlates of autistic behavior in macaque
Published in Science Advances

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a set of heterogenous neurodevelopmental conditions that is characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction, as well as restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. Despite increasing attention, the physiological mechanisms underlying cognitive behavioral features in ASD are unknown. Our member, Dr. Go and his colleagues demonstrated that there might be a paucity of nerve cells (neurons) in the autistic brain that process other individuals’ actions and this work was published in Science Advances.

The team noticed that one of their research monkeys (named monkey E) behaved differently from others: it displayed an impaired ability to interactively perform a turn-taking task with other monkeys, the lack of social communication with human experimenters, and repetitive behavior, which are most frequently associated with ASD.

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Kyoko Yoshida, Yasuhiro Go, Itaru Kushima, Atsushi Toyoda, Asao Fujiyama, Hiroo Imai, Nobuhito Saito, Atsushi Iriki, Norio Ozaki, and Masaki Isoda,
Single-neuron and genetic correlates of autistic behavior in macaque.
Science Advances 21 Sep 2016: Vol. 2, no. 9, e1600558