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IMAGE: Hirofumi Morishita, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Opthalmology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and lead author of the study.
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Credit: Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Researchers find a new way to prevent attention deficits associated with Fragile X, a leading genetic cause of autism, in an animal model
Corresponding Author: Hirofumi Morishita, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York.
Bottom Line: The adolescent maturation of the frontal cortex is important for establishing cognitive function, and disruption of this process is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. This study uncovered a new molecular driver of frontal circuit maturation that is essential for cognitive function, and demonstrated, in an animal model, that this mechanism can be targeted to restore attention deficits caused by a leading genetic cause of autism.