Elainna Simpson

Professor Cassella

Neuropsychiatric Diseases

Fall 2018

Autism Reflection

Autism spectrum disorder has many different aspects that help to make it unique but the
fact that it is more prevalent in males and how issues with protein functioning can affect physical
behaviors were the most interesting aspects to me. Autism is more common in males than
females and it is helpful to be able to look at what is known about autism and to try to make the
connection to why this is true. One component that we read about in an article about sex
differences within autism by McCarthy and Wright; was the extreme male brain theory. This
theory points out that many autism traits are reminiscent of common male traits but on an
extreme level that can lead to dysfunction. The reading highlighted some of those traits as low
empathy, poor bonding, and lack of social skills. This is an interesting idea and helps to
understand the higher rates in males than females but does not answer why we still see autism
within females as well and their likelihood to show more severe symptoms, such as low IQ.
Since we are aware that this disease targets male-focused behaviors we can target the area that is
being affected to one that is sexually dimorphic and therefore is different in males and females.
So within the same article, they discussed the POA (preoptic area) and how that could be where
the difference in males and females could stem from. The POA is responsible for sexual
behavior, paternal behavior, and social interest. These behaviors are all vital to animal survival
and therefore need a reward when completed to continue them and survive and oxytocin ensures
this. The POA naturally has a lot of inflammation but having too much inflammation is not
healthy and can lead to being on the high end of the spectrum because inflammation activates
microglia and drive masculinization. They tested this during a study within the article, where the
results were female mice who had more inflammation showed more male traits. Although this is
an indicator as to how we see autism traits as enhanced male traits it doesn’t clearly explain how
females are affected and show that this isn’t the only affected region in autism. There could also
be an issue with diagnoses where there is a known statistic that men are more affected than
women and therefore then get diagnosed more often. It was an interesting process to take
something that was known and to find the root of it to understand how it affects the disorder as a
whole. This is something that I would not have thought of before but is an important part of
doing research and dissecting a research paper.

It would be interesting to find out more about how we can tie certain neuroanatomical
signs of autism back to a genetic or protein function level and then be able to equate it with
behaviors we see that are common in autism patients. When we looked at autism patients’
cortexes and saw that they grew faster and larger and that their grey matter isn’t organized into
their appropriate cortical layer. This can be seen behaviorally through communication issues,
motor issues, and others. We examined this a little in the article about Lis1 and its effect on
filopodia and spines and that’s effect on social behavior by Sudarov. They showed that with the
help of ROCK inhibitors they were able to level out the length and motility of spines and that can
affect social behavior. I found it interesting to be able to find the issues that are in common in the
disorder and link them together to understand autism a little better. To me, it was valuable to
understand how to make a flow chart of what I’m reading and be able to understand it better and
link the things that I did know. This is especially important when talking about autism spectrum
disorder and seeing how many different types that can lead to many different symptoms. This
unit has helped me to see what I enjoy within neuroscience and what I want to learn more about
and that is disorders like autism and seeing how they show in behaviors and being able to track
them down to the protein or area that is dysfunctional.