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Autism as a disorder of neural information processing: directions for research and targets for therapy

Molecular Psychiatry volume 9, pages 646–663 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

The broad variation in phenotypes and severities within autism spectrum disorders suggests the involvement of multiple predisposing factors, interacting in complex ways with normal developmental courses and gradients. Identification of these factors, and the common developmental path into which they feed, is hampered by the large degrees of convergence from causal factors to altered brain development, and divergence from abnormal brain development into altered cognition and behaviour. Genetic, neurochemical, neuroimaging, and behavioural findings on autism, as well as studies of normal development and of genetic syndromes that share symptoms with autism, offer hypotheses as to the nature of causal factors and their possible effects on the structure and dynamics of neural systems. Such alterations in neural properties may in turn perturb activity-dependent development, giving rise to a complex behavioural syndrome many steps removed from the root causes. Animal models based on genetic, neurochemical, neurophysiological, and behavioural manipulations offer the possibility of exploring these developmental processes in detail, as do human studies addressing endophenotypes beyond the diagnosis itself.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology, Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, UK

    M K Belmonte

  2. Departments of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    E H Cook Jr

  3. Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    G M Anderson

  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    J L R Rubenstein

  5. Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA

    W T Greenough & A Beckel-Mitchener

  6. Department of Neurosciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    E Courchesne

  7. Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    L M Boulanger

  8. Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    S B Powell

  9. Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    P R Levitt

  10. Centre Development in Clinical Brain Ageing, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, UK

    E K Perry

  11. Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Y H Jiang

  12. Molecular Research Institute, Mountain View, CA, USA

    T M DeLorey

  13. Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA

    E Tierney

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  1. M K Belmonte
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  2. E H Cook Jr
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  3. G M Anderson
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  7. E Courchesne
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  9. S B Powell
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  14. E Tierney
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Correspondence to M K Belmonte.

Additional information

This paper is the report of the meeting ‘Pinpointing Autism: Neurochemical Targets and Research Directions in Developmental Neurobiology’ convened by Cure Autism Now in Santa Monica, CA, April 2002. In addition to those workshop participants who have directly contributed to this review, we acknowledge the participation of Michael Merzenich, Eric Hollander, Steven Watkins, Maja Bucan, and Mark Geyer, whose insights have helped shape this discussion.

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Belmonte, M., Cook, E., Anderson, G. et al. Autism as a disorder of neural information processing: directions for research and targets for therapy. Mol Psychiatry 9, 646–663 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001499

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001499

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