Environmental Enrichment Attenuates Repetitive Behavior and Alters the Functional Connectivity of Pain and Sensory Pathways in C58 Mice.

Restricted repetitive behaviors (RRB) encompass a variety of inflexible behaviors, which are diagnostic for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Despite being requisite diagnostic criteria, the neurocircuitry of these behaviors remains poorly understood, limiting treatment development. Studies in translational animal models show environmental enrichment (EE) reduces the expression of RRB, although the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown.

Transcallosal white matter and cortical gray matter variations in autistic adults ages 30-73 years: A bi-tensor free water imaging approach.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has long been recognized as a lifelong condition, but brain aging studies in autistic adults aged >30 years are limited. Free water, a novel brain imaging marker derived from diffusion MRI (dMRI), has shown promise in differentiating typical and pathological aging and monitoring brain degeneration. We aimed to examine free water and free water corrected dMRI measures to assess white and gray matter microstructure and their associations with age in autistic adults.

Environmental enrichment reduces restricted repetitive behavior by altering gray matter microstructure.

Restricted, repetitive behaviors are common symptoms in neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorder. Despite being associated with poor developmental outcomes, repetitive behaviors remain poorly understood and have limited treatment options. Environmental enrichment attenuates the development of repetitive behaviors, but the exact mechanisms remain obscure.

Genome sequence of phage MaGuCo.

MaGuCo is a temperate phage isolated from soil collected in Alton, NH, USA, using . Its genome is 43,924 base pairs long and contains 63 protein-encoding genes, 44 of which were assigned putative functions. MaCuGo is assigned to cluster AZ2 based on gene content similarity to actinobacteriophages.

Cortico-basal ganglia white matter microstructure is linked to restricted repetitive behavior in autism spectrum disorder.

Background: Restricted repetitive behavior (RRB) is one of two behavioral domains required for the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Neuroimaging is widely used to study brain alterations associated with ASD and the domain of social and communication deficits, but there has been less work regarding brain alterations linked to RRB.

Methods: We utilized neuroimaging data from the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive to assess basal ganglia and cerebellum structure in a cohort of children and adolescents with ASD compared to typically developing (TD) controls.