The Pathogenesis of Autism

Autism is well known as a complex developmental disorder with a seemingly confusing and uncertain pathogenesis. The definitive mechanisms that promote autism are poorly understood and mostly unknown, yet available theories do appear to focus on the disruption of normal cerebral development and its s...

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Main Author: Timothy John Watts
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2008-01-01
Series:Clinical Medicine Insights: Pathology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.4137/CPath.S1143
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author Timothy John Watts
author_facet Timothy John Watts
author_sort Timothy John Watts
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description Autism is well known as a complex developmental disorder with a seemingly confusing and uncertain pathogenesis. The definitive mechanisms that promote autism are poorly understood and mostly unknown, yet available theories do appear to focus on the disruption of normal cerebral development and its subsequent implications on the functional brain unit. This mini-review aims solely to discuss and evaluate the most prominent current theories regarding the pathogenesis of autism. The main conclusion is that although there is not a clear pathway of mechanisms directed towards a simple pathogenesis and an established link to autism on the symptomatic level; there are however several important theories (neural connectivity, neural migration, excitatory-inhibitory neural activity, dendritic morphology, neuroimmune; calcium signalling and mirror neurone) which appear to offer an explanation to how autism develops. It seems probable that autism's neurodevelopmental defect is ‘multi-domain’ in origin (rather than a single anomaly) and is hence distributed across numerous levels of study (genetic, immunopathogenic, etc.). A more definitive understanding of the pathogenesis could facilitate the development of better treatments for this complex psychiatric disorder.
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spelling doaj.art-408bf5adfd654936a7a1682795babb572022-12-21T18:31:02ZengSAGE PublishingClinical Medicine Insights: Pathology1179-55572008-01-01110.4137/CPath.S1143The Pathogenesis of AutismTimothy John Watts0Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Turner Street, London, E1 2AD, U.K.Autism is well known as a complex developmental disorder with a seemingly confusing and uncertain pathogenesis. The definitive mechanisms that promote autism are poorly understood and mostly unknown, yet available theories do appear to focus on the disruption of normal cerebral development and its subsequent implications on the functional brain unit. This mini-review aims solely to discuss and evaluate the most prominent current theories regarding the pathogenesis of autism. The main conclusion is that although there is not a clear pathway of mechanisms directed towards a simple pathogenesis and an established link to autism on the symptomatic level; there are however several important theories (neural connectivity, neural migration, excitatory-inhibitory neural activity, dendritic morphology, neuroimmune; calcium signalling and mirror neurone) which appear to offer an explanation to how autism develops. It seems probable that autism's neurodevelopmental defect is ‘multi-domain’ in origin (rather than a single anomaly) and is hence distributed across numerous levels of study (genetic, immunopathogenic, etc.). A more definitive understanding of the pathogenesis could facilitate the development of better treatments for this complex psychiatric disorder.https://doi.org/10.4137/CPath.S1143
spellingShingle Timothy John Watts
The Pathogenesis of Autism
Clinical Medicine Insights: Pathology
title The Pathogenesis of Autism
title_full The Pathogenesis of Autism
title_fullStr The Pathogenesis of Autism
title_full_unstemmed The Pathogenesis of Autism
title_short The Pathogenesis of Autism
title_sort pathogenesis of autism
url https://doi.org/10.4137/CPath.S1143
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