The Clarion-Ledger 2:55 p.m. CST February 3, 2015
From left, Dr. Kimberly Simpson, associate professor, Dr. Ryan Darling, assistant professor, Dr. Rick Lin, professor, and Dr. Yuegen "Jordan" Lu, assistant professor.(Photo: UMMC)
Researchers in Mississippi and California say they have proven that the brain can be rewired which could translate into a treatment for autism.
The study was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The report's co-author is Dr. Rick Lin, professor of neurobiology and anatomical sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
The findings, for now, are limited to the study's test subjects rats. But the results have proven that these animals' brains can be rewired via intense auditory behavioral training, said Lin.
The intricacies of a brain's wiring remains one of the largest puzzles before scientific researchers who have spent years to solve pieces of the complex mechanism. Yet for every question answered, more seem to appear.
So when the UMMC team, working with scientists at the University of California in San Francisco, discovered the potential reset button, the discovery immediately drew questions of what the findings could mean for the future of autism treatments and, it is hoped, better outcomes.
The particular test subjects were injected with a drug that stimulated serotonin receptors which in turn induced autistic-like behaviors in the young rats, said Lin.
"The rats, they were just not going to play with one another," Lin said of the test subjects. "Just how a child with autism prefers to play by himself, so were these animals.
"They were also super nervous, and when we would try to excite them with noise, they would just freeze," said Lin. "That's not typical of rat."
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Miss., Calif research may lead to autism treatment