Scientists think that brain cells of autistic patients receive too little inhibition, or much excitation, leading to hyperactivity in the brain. This is supposed to create “noise”, leading to social and attention deficits.
However, new research in four mouse models of autism has shown that, while neurons do receive less inhibition, the altered balance between inhibition and excitation does not lead to increased activity of the cells. Rather, it appears that this reflects a compensatory mechanism related to the disease, i.e. to stabilize neuronal activity.
This is fundamentally different from the current theory, and, considering that much research is devoted to the development of treatments to increase inhibition, an important new insight for more effective treatment of autism.
Read the full story: University of California - Berkeley
Scientific publication: Neuron
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