2024 Seed Grant
Daniel Bayless, Ph.D.
The Salk Institute
Social interactions are vital for our well-being and personal relationships. Difficulty in social communication and disrupted social interactions are a prominent feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but the underlying neural basis of these social processing differences is not well understood. Our studies aim to localize where in the brain genes associated with ASD act to alter social behaviors. This line of research has historically been challenging because most ASD-linked genes are found throughout the brain. Moreover, most brain regions contain neurons that regulate multiple unrelated behaviors. Fortunately, molecular genetic techniques in mice allow us to selectively isolate and study neurons important for social behaviors. We will use these techniques to study the impact of one group of ASD-linked genes (SHANK genes) on the functioning of a population of neurons that we recently showed is essential for social information processing. These neurons reside in a subcortical region (the BNSTpr) that has not been studied in ASD model mice. Interestingly, disruption of the functioning of this brain region has a larger negative impact on social behaviors in male mice than in female mice. ASD is more commonly diagnosed in boys than in girls (4:1). Therefore, these studies could provide insights into why ASD affects more boys than girls. Moreover, these experiments have the potential to localize where in the brain ASD-linked genes act to disrupt social information processing, which will be required to develop targeted therapies aimed at improving social processing skills in humans without affecting other behaviors.
