The impact of autism risk genes on oromotor behaviors

Difficulties with oromotor behaviors, like speech and feeding, are daily challenges for many individuals with autism. Kevin Yackle and colleagues hypothesize that a major contributor to these challenges is dysfunction of the innate brainstem central pattern generators that drive basic behaviors like phonation and swallowing. Recently, Yackle and colleagues identified a novel brainstem vocalization pattern generator and demonstrated that these neurons play a key role in forming adult mouse vocalizations. They also established a first-of-its-kind behavioral assay to study the coordination of multiple orofacial rhythms: breathing, licking and swallowing.

In this Pilot study, Yackle and his group will screen several mouse models of ASD risk genes — Foxp2, Adnp and Chd8 — for abnormal vocalizations. Then, they will dissect the changes in the underlying motor pattern in the models that harbor phonation phenotypes. Finally, they will characterize the oromotor coordination of licking, breathing, and swallowing in the ASD models. Their goal for this work is to establish a foundation for understanding how mutations in various distinct genes causally linked to ASD, like transcription factors and synaptic proteins, impact the proper function of these innate behaviors.