Sensory diversity: Autistic people can be grouped into one of five distinct sensory profiles, and those groupings correlate with functional connectivity measures, a new paper reports. Researchers used machine learning to identify patterns in participants’ Short Sensory Profile scores along with resting-state functional MRI data from across brain areas to construct a functional connectivity matrix. “This approach supports the idea that sensory phenotypes correspond to distinct patterns of information transfer in the brain and highlights how differences in functional connectivity may contribute to sensory processing heterogeneity in autism,” the authors write. In other sensory news, a study documents how experience and environment shape the maturation of parvalbumin interneurons in the somatosensory cortex of prairie voles, a model organism for studying attachment and social touch.
Autism research spotted this week:
- “In vivo human embryonic spinal cord atlas validates stem cell–derived human dorsal interneurons and reveals ASD spinal signatures” bioRxiv
- “Altered structural plasticity mediated by mGlu and NMDA receptors and impaired cognition in a genetic ASD model (SHANK3+/- mice)” The Journal of Neuroscience
- “Rescuing neurodevelopmental deficits in AMPA receptor gain-of-function mutant” bioRxiv
