intellectual function – Page 3 – ASF Weekly Science Podcasts

May 28, 2017

Memorial Day Memoriam: Isabelle Rapin

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This week, autism lost a pioneer and advocate for autism research: Isabelle Rapin, MD, a neurologist from New York’s Albert Einstein University. The first part of the podcast is a brief summary of her accomplishments. The second part is an study called “how to keep your child out of the hospital”, presenting a recent study which looked at risk factors for being an inpatient, rather than an outpatient. These risk factors may not be able to be prevented, but hopefully through identification of what they are, situations might be managed to help those with autism and their families during a crisis situation.

May 22, 2017May 22, 2017

A new understanding of autism genetics

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Lots of people tend to think of the genetics of disorders or disease about one mutation or genetic variation that is inherited from the mother or the father, that causes a trait directly. Unfortunately, the genetics of autism isn’t that simple or scientists would have found “the gene” by now. In fact, there are different types of genetic influences in autism. A new study in Nature Genetics led by Elise Robinson shows how common variation influences autism risk, as well as intellectual function in autism, compared to de novo mutations. There is a short primer at the beginning of the podcast about old-school genetic thinking and why it doesn’t apply to ASD. Below is the picture mentioned.