Simons Foundation

This lecture explores the biological bases of critical periods in brain development. Mechanisms that open and close windows of plasticity (E/I balance and molecular brakes, respectively) are implicated in autism, suggesting mistimed maturational processes that can be strategically rescued at the circuit level.

In this lecture, Catherine Dulac will discuss the cellular and molecular architecture of neural circuits underlying instinctive social behaviors of mice. She will describe her group’s recent advances in uncovering the identity of sensory neurons that detect social cues and the identity of command circuits associated with specific social responses in male and female mice.

In this lecture, David S. Mandell will talk about why autism interventions rarely are implemented in community practice and why they fail to achieve the same outcomes as those observed in clinical trials.

In this lecture, Gordon Fishell will describe his investigations of the developmental and genetic origins of interneuron development.

This talk will outline the current state of genetics research in autism, highlight some of the key findings that remain to be discovered, and consider how these findings could ultimately benefit individuals with autism and their families.

Christopher Walsh will review recent work on ‘somatic mutations’ — de novo mutations that are present in some brain cells but not in all cells of the body — in several neurological conditions associated with intellectual disability and seizures.

Dr. Ruth O’Hara will present on the field’s current understanding of sleep in autism spectrum disorder.

In this lecture, Dr. Beth Stevens will discuss recent work that implicates brain immune cells, called microglia, in sculpting of synaptic connections during development and their relevance to autism, schizophrenia and other brain disorders.