Autism

A gene called Syngap1 enables touch-based perception, while certain mutations can lead to mixed signals, a new study finds.

Gavin Rumbaugh, Ph.D., studies a gene critical for neurodevelopment, called SYNGAP1. He is part of a team working on a potential treatment. The team recently was awarded a five-year, $7.7 million grant for the effort. Photo credit: Scott Wiseman What happens in the brain when a gene critical…

Two public panel discussions in Jupiter, Florida, will explore new discoveries about the brain and brain health.

Children born with a damaged gene needed for healthy brain development, SYNGAP1, experience seizures, sensory processing disorders, difficulty speaking, intellectual disability, and autism-like behaviors. It’s a condition without any treatments, one that’s hard both on parents and children, said Gavin Rumbaugh, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at The Herbert Wertheim…

Hattori focuses on understanding and mapping how the brain integrates information to make decisions.

Rumbaugh lab found that the gene Syngap1 enables normally quiet neurons to spring into activity during sensory challenges, while other neurons are quieted.

Mutations to Dyrk1a gene lead to brain undergrowth with features of autism and intellectual disability. An existing drug rescues the condition in newborn mice, Scripps Florida scientists find.

Scientists shed new light on how an autism risk gene changes brain development in a way that may lead to sensory processing disorders.