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Clinical and epidemiological studies have suggested that both genetic and environmental factors cause autism. A new study provides strong support for that hypothesis.
Investigators asked whether different genes are turned on (expressed) or off in autism and, if so, in which parts of the brain. They compared gene expression in the frontal cortex, temporal cortex, and cerebellum of postmortem brains from 19 subjects with autism and 17 healthy controls. Of all 20,000+ human genes, only 2 genes were expressed differently in autistic and control cerebella. However, 444 genes were expressed differently in the cortex. The investigators examined these genes by groupings known to interact with each other. Decreased expression was noted for a group of…