"Kids With Autism Spectrum Disorder Have Underdeveloped Social Brain"
A study by a team of researchers from Mount Sinai has found that children with autism spectrum disorder have socially affected brains. According to the study, which was published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, regulation of a family of brain proteins known as bromodomain and extra-terminal domain containing transcription regulators (BETs) plays a key role in normal cognition and behavior. Anne Schaefer, MD, PhD, the lead researcher on the study, explained that "our findings reinforce the idea that ASD could be caused not only by genetic alteration, but by environmental factors that reduce the efficiency of gene transcription into full length RNA during brain development."
-Anne Schaefer, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Neuroscience, Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
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