On 25 April 2013, Matthew State reviewed the genetic discoveries made over the past several years in autism research and addressed challenges in the path forward — from reliable gene discovery to an actionable understanding of the disorder’s molecular underpinnings.The talk is part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. You can watch a...
On 30 May, Betty Diamond discussed how the immune system can mediate alterations in brain development and play a role in autism, as part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. Alan Brown provided a post-lecture commentary and context for Diamond's work on epidemiological studies of autism and related disorders. You can watch a...
On 26 September 2013, Catherine Lord and Steven Hyman presented conceptual frameworks for autism diagnosis and research, ranging from genetics to symptomatology, as part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. Eric London provided post-lecture commentary, placing the discussion in a clinical context and providing a physician’s perspective. You can watch a complete video...
On 6 November 2013, Amanda Woodward discussed the origins of children’s social understanding and how this fundamental aspect of cognition has profound implications for early childhood development. The talk is part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. Kevin Pelphrey provided post-lecture commentary on how our growing understanding of the origins of children’s social...
On 26 February, David Amaral presented evidence supporting the concept that there are different types of altered brain development among children with autism.His talk is part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. You can watch a complete video recording of the event above. About the lecture: Autism clearly involves altered function of the central...
On 26 March, Ami Klin presented data from two studies measuring social adaptive behaviors — highly conserved and early-emerging mechanisms of socialization — in infants and toddlers.His talk is part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. You can watch a complete video recording of the event above. About the lecture: Advances in molecular...
On 23 April, Gail Mandel presented the complex pathology of Rett syndrome and discussed whether this autism-related disorder would be amenable to gene replacement strategies. Her talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series. You can watch a complete video recording of the event above. About the Lecture A central goal...
On 23 September, Nancy Kanwisher discussed the functional architecture of the social brain as an avenue for considering which functions are affected and which are preserved in autism.Her talk was part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. About the lecture: Humans are a highly social species, allocating numerous brain regions to distinct aspects...
On 29 October 2014, Dan Littman described how intestinal bacteria affect immune system cell functioning, potentially contributing to systemic inflammation and autism. His talk was part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. About the lecture: Our immune system is heavily influenced by microbiota — the microbes that reside within us. In the intestine,...
On 3 December 2014, Karen E. Adolph discussed how infants learn to generate and control their movements by adapting to environmental and social factors.Her talk, which covered ways in which a variety of external factors affect how infants learn to move, was part of SFARI’s Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. Adolph explained how infants...
On 25 March 2015, Maureen Durkin discussed trends in the prevalence of autism and explored some of the reasons underlying the recent rise in autism cases. Her talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series. About the Lecture Once considered an extremely rare childhood mental disorder, autism is now recognized as...
On 30 September 2015, Takao Hensch discussed the biological bases of critical periods in brain development. Mechanisms that open and close windows of plasticity (E/I balance and molecular brakes, respectively) have been implicated in autism, suggesting mistimed maturational processes that can be strategically rescued at the circuit level. His talk was part of the...
All Society for Neuroscience (SfN) attendees are welcome to join SFARI Investigators and scientific staff for an evening of socializing and networking, including a brief information session on SFARI funding programs and scientific resources for the autism research community. We welcome newcomers to autism research as well as those already working to uncover the...
On 28 October 2015, Catherine Dulac discussed the cellular and molecular architecture of neural circuits underlying instinctive social behaviors in mice. Her talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series. About the Lecture Severe mental disorders such autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and major depressive disorder are characterized by profound social impairments. There...
On 11 November 2015, David S. Mandell talked about why autism interventions rarely are implemented in community practice and why they fail to achieve the same outcomes as those observed in clinical trials. His talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series. About the Lecture A growing body of research shows...
On 27 January 2016, Gordon Fishell described his investigations of the developmental and genetic origins of interneuron development. His talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series. About the Lecture Interneurons within the brain, in the cortex and hippocampus in particular, are central for normal brain function, and conversely, dysfunction of...
On 30 March 2016, Catherine Monk described her lab’s fetal origins of adult disease (FOAD) studies that focus on women in the perinatal period and fetal and infant neurobehavioral development, including direct studies of the fetus, newborn brain imaging and placental methylation. Her talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series....
On 27 April 2016, Christopher Walsh reviewed recent work on ‘somatic mutations’ — de novo mutations that are present in some brain cells but not in all cells of the body — in several neurological conditions associated with intellectual disability and seizures. His talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series....
On 7 September 2016, Ruth O'Hara discussed the field’s current understanding of sleep in autism spectrum disorder. Her talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture series. About the Lecture Understanding sleep physiology in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) not only provides a window to the underlying etiology, it can also help...
On 5 October 2016, Mustafa Sahin presented an update on translational research in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex. His talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series. About the Lecture In this lecture, Mustafa Sahin presented the rationale for investigating Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) as a way to understand the cellular and circuitry...
On 2 November 2016, Beth Stevens discussed recent work that implicates brain immune cells, called microglia, in sculpting of synaptic connections during development and their relevance to autism, schizophrenia and other brain disorders. Her talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series. About the Lecture Recent research has revealed a key...
All Society for Neuroscience (SfN) attendees are welcome to join SFARI Investigators and scientific staff for an evening of socializing and networking, including a brief information session on SFARI funding opportunities and scientific resources for the autism research community. We welcome newcomers to autism research as well as those already working to uncover the...
On 25 January 2017, Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele outlined critical challenges to translating genomic, cellular, and animal model research into new treatments for autism spectrum disorder. His talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series. About the Lecture Emerging genomic and neuroscience findings have delivered hypotheses that are now being tested in autism...
On 22 February 2017, Mark Zylka described how candidate environmental risk factors for autism can be identified rationally, by pinpointing chemicals that interfere with the same molecular pathways that are affected in individuals with autism. His talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture series. About the Lecture Our inability to identify...
On 22 March 2017, Stephan Sanders presented an update on the current state of genetics research in autism, highlighting some of the key findings that remain to be discovered, and discussing how these findings could ultimately benefit individuals with autism and their families. His talk was part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research lecture...
All Society for Neuroscience (SfN) attendees are welcome to join SFARI Investigators and scientific staff for an evening of socializing and networking, including a brief information session on SFARI funding opportunities and scientific resources for the autism research community. We welcome newcomers to autism research as well as those already working to uncover the...
