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The Imprinted Brain Theory of Autism
By admin | March 26, 2006
The Journal of Evolutionary Biology has published a mini-review ahead of print that proposes a new evolutinary theory for the aetiology of autism. Dr. Christopher Badcock and Professor Bernard Crespi propose that autism has been developed through “imbalances in brain development involving enhanced effects of paternally expressed imprinted genes, deficits of effects from maternally expressed genes, or both.”
The proposed theory builds on Baron-Cohen’s “extreme male brain theory” of autism, which the authors claim fails to account for the high incidence of autistic males that are more towards the “normal” end of the spectrum. Additionally, Badcock and Crespi have trouble reconciling the extreme male brain theory of autism with the incidence of any female cases of the disorder.
Rather, the authors suggest a new “extreme imprinted brain theory” that accounts for the sex ratio biases of autism (approximately 4:1 ratio of males to females) and “other observations that are otherwise inexplicable.”
Imbalanced genomic imprinting in brain development: an evolutionary basis for aetiology of autism
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Topics: imprinting, research articles |
April 7th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
[...] Epigenetics News provides a succinct overview of a “mini-review” from the The Journal of Evolutionary Biology that proposes a new evolutionary theory for the aetiology of autism, Imbalanced genomic imprinting in brain development: an evolutionary basis for the aetiology of autism. Dr. Christopher Badcock and Professor Bernard Crespi propose that autism has been developed through “imbalances in brain development involving enhanced effects of paternally expressed imprinted genes, deficits of effects from maternally expressed genes, or both.” [...]