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....
