Gene Research May Help Explain Autistic Savant


	Gene Research May Help Explain Autistic Savant

Deepti

2-14-2008 8:20 AM

279 views

tags:

autism, savant, research, mice, study, disorder

Deepti says:

The superior learning ability of these mutant mice in a specific realm is reminiscent of human autistic savants

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/4abc9cb4-58c7-4c51-8df1-011f0793718b/ECD17B21-C5B5-4409-BDCA-F7CE055C1787/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.sflorg.com/comm_center/" href="http://www.sflorg.com/comm_center/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.sflorg.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sflorg.com/comm_center/">Mice lacking a certain brain
				protein learn some tasks better but also forget faster, according
				to new research from MIT that may explain the phenomenon of
				autistic savants in humans. The work could also result in future
				treatments for autism and other brain development disorders</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sflorg.com/comm_center/">mice genetically
				engineered to lack a key protein used for building synapses--the
				junctions through which brain cells communicate--actually learned
				a spatial memory task faster and better than normal mice</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sflorg.com/comm_center/">But
				when tested weeks later, they couldn't remember what they had
				learned as well as normal mice, and they had trouble remembering
				contexts that should have provoked fear</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sflorg.com/comm_center/">The mice in the study had
				smaller dendritic spines and weaker brain synapses. Their
				enhanced spatial learning is similar to that of mice engineered
				to have a mutation in another protein--neuroligin3--that binds
				directly to Shank1 and is also associated with autism</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/ECD17B21-C5B5-4409-BDCA-F7CE055C1787/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>