A new study from Penn Medicine lends further evidence that the social behaviors tied to autism emerge from abnormal function of sensory neurons outside the brain.
The report published in the journal Cell Reports, because peripheral sensory systems—which determine how we perceive the environment around us—makes for more accessible therapeutic targets to treat ASD-related symptoms, rather than the central brain itself.
In the fruit fly Drosophila – a powerful model for studying neurobiology—the researchers showed that loss of a protein known as neurofibromin 1 caused adult male flies to have social impairments. Those deficits, the researchers also showed, traced back to a primary disruption in a small group of peripheral neurons controlling external stimuli, like smell and touch, that communicate to the brain.
“These data raise the exciting possibility that the root of the problem doesn’t begin with errors in the brain itself. It’s the disrupted flow of information from the periphery to the brain we should be taking a closer look at,” says senior author Matthew Kayser,an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine. “The findings should help guide the field toward sensory processing therapeutic targets that, if effective, could be transformative for patients suffering from these disorders.”
