UF Scripps Researchers’ Work Sheds New Light on Relationship Between Brain Structure and Behavior in Preclinical Model of Autism (UF Health)

UF Scripps Researchers’ Work Sheds New Light on Relationship Between Brain Structure and Behavior in Preclinical Model of Autism

For people with autism, overstimulating sensory experiences such as noise can have a profound effect on their lives. Now, a group of scientists at UF Scripps Biomedical Research has shed new light on brain development that can lead to autism-related sensory processing disorders.

The breakthrough is one of the first uses of structural brain imaging to reveal a previously unknown autism-related behavioral deficit, said Damon T. Page, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of neuroscience. Page and his colleagues used magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, to assess brain size and development in mice carrying a mutation in an autism-risk gene. The findings were published recently in the journal iScience.

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