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SUMMARY:Sensory processing in autism – Core phenotypic status? - Dr. Car
 oline Robertson\, Assistant Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmou
 th University\, Director of the Dartmouth Autism Research Initiative
DTSTART:20181106T120000Z
DTEND:20181106T130000Z
UID:TALK113212@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Amber Ruigrok
DESCRIPTION:Atypical sensory experience is estimated to occur in as many a
 s 90% of autistic individuals and to affect every sensory modality: taste\
 , touch\, audition\, olfaction and vision. Because the neural computations
  underlying sensory processing are relatively well understood and are cons
 erved between humans and other animals\, sensory paradigms have considerab
 le potential for shedding light on autistic neurobiology. But are sensory 
 traits\, in fact\, core phenotypic markers of autism\, which is classicall
 y considered a "disorder of the social brain"?  In this talk\, I will argu
 e that the answer is “yes” [1]. The evidence I review shows that the a
 utistic cortex is affected by distinct\, low-level changes in neural circu
 itry dedicated to perceptual processing (including primary sensory areas).
  Further\, perceptual symptoms in individuals with autism are evident earl
 y in development\, account for independent variance in diagnostic assessme
 nts\, and show a persistent relationship to clinical measures of higher-or
 der social cognition and behavior. Finally\, I will describe our recent wo
 rk using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) and pharmacology to implica
 te a specific neurotransmitter pathway (GABA) within a local\, early-visua
 l circuit in a robust and replicated difference in autistic visual behavio
 r (binocular rivalry) [2]. These findings have enabled to identify a robus
 t marker of autism in low-level visual behavior\, which we are currently u
 sing as an experimental workhorse to test circuit-level neurobiological th
 eories of autism.\n\n[1] Robertson and Baron-Cohen (2017)\, Sensory Percep
 tion in Autism\, Nature Reviews Neuroscience. \n[2] Robertson\, C. E.\, Ra
 tai\, E. M. & Kanwisher\, N. (2016). Reduced GABAergic action in the autis
 tic brain. Curr. Biol. 26\, 80–85.
LOCATION:Large Meeting Room (groundfloor)\, Douglas House\, 18B\, Trumping
 ton Road
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