Word: braine
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...sometimes marry cousins are ideal for studying recessive genes. Though the newly identified genes are located in far-flung regions on the 23 human chromosomes, they are related in function: most play a role in learning. These genes are active in creating, reinforcing or modifying synaptic pathways in the brain - physical and biochemical changes that occur when we learn something new. The implication of this work is that autism may fundamentally amount to molecular defects in learning...
Symptoms of autism typically emerge during the first five years of life - a period when a child normally picks up language, social skills and many other new abilities. Scientists call this kind of growth "experience-dependent learning," and researchers know that it is associated with enormous changes in brain circuitry. At least 300 genes switch on and off to regulate experience-dependent learning. Defects in any number of them could conceivably result in some symptoms of autism. There may be hundreds of varieties of autism. From what researchers have seen so far, says Walsh, "It looks like almost every child...
...encouraging finding: most of the genetic defects identified in the Middle Eastern families were not in the business part of the gene - the part that codes for a critical brain protein. Instead the defects lay mainly in adjacent regions that turn the gene fully or partially on and off. This suggests that certain therapies or drugs could help normalize the activity of these genes, according to Dr. Eric Morrow of Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the lead authors of the paper. In fact, Morrow suspects that early intervention programs for children with autism involving intensive instruction in speech and social...
...Light on Fragile X Claudia Wallis' article "The Fragile X Factor" provides a compelling view of a simple single-gene disorder that has turned out to be far more complicated than anyone imagined [July 7]. Biologically, the gene has ripple effects throughout the brain. For families, it has ripple effects across generations. Many doctors, teachers and therapists know too little about it to provide appropriate care. Thank you for helping raise public awareness. Don Bailey, President of the Board of Directors, National Fragile X Foundation, Chapel Hill, North Carolina...
...start asking smarter questions, but the message was clear: Life is never either/or. Decisions are complex, and there are always competing factors. To look for simple explanations is the bias of the human brain, but it doesn't correspond to reality. Nothing is ever as straightforward as it appears...