Cited by 442Autism Spectrum Disorder ResearchGenetics and Neurodevelopmental DisordersNeuroendocrine regulation and behavior

Autism as a disorder of neural information processing: Directions for research and targets for therapy

Open access
Belmonte, M K, Cook, E H, Anderson, G M, Rubenstein, J L R, Greenough, W T, Beckel-Mitchener, A, Courchesne, E, Boulanger, L M +6 more·2004·Molecular Psychiatry

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

The broad variation in phenotypes and severities within autism spectrum disorders suggests the involvement of multiple predisposing factors, interacting in complex ways with normal developmental courses and gradients. Identification of these factors, and the common developmental path into which they feed, is hampered by the large degrees of convergence from causal factors to altered brain development, and divergence from abnormal brain development into altered cognition and behaviour. Genetic, neurochemical, neuroimaging, and behavioural findings on autism, as well as studies of normal development and of genetic syndromes that share symptoms with autism, offer hypotheses as to the nature of causal factors and their possible effects on the structure and dynamics of neural systems. Such alterations in neural properties may in turn perturb activity-dependent development, giving rise to a complex behavioural syndrome many steps removed from the root causes. Animal models based on genetic, neurochemical, neurophysiological, and behavioural manipulations offer the possibility of exploring these developmental processes in detail, as do human studies addressing endophenotypes beyond the diagnosis itself.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/sj.mp.4001499

Cites

274 of 274 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Belmonte and colleagues proposed a unifying model based on imaging, electrophysiological, and anatomical data implicating abnormal neural connectivity that disrupts timing and information processing.

    “Belmonte and colleagues have articulated a cogent unifying model based on imaging, electrophysiological and anatomical data, which implicates abnormal neural connectivity disrupting timing and information processing [51, 52].”

    From Genetics of autism spectrum disorders (2011) · cites this paper as [52]

  • Models of ASD as a brain dysconnection syndrome have emerged from analyses of abnormalities in cortico-cortical connections.

    “Models of ASD as a brain dysconnection syndrome (8-13) have emerged from analyses of abnormalities in cortico-cortical connections.”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 42

  1. [1][1] Ader R, Felton DL, Cohen N (eds). Psychoneuroimmunology 2/e. Academic Press: San Diego, 1991. -
  2. [7][7] Anderson GM, Horne WC, Chatterjee D, Cohen DJ. The hyperserotonemia of autism. Ann NY Acad Sci 1990; 600 :331-340. -
  3. [16][16] Ballaban-Gil K, Tuchman R. Epilepsyand epileptiform EEG: association with autism and language disorders. Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev 2000; 6 :300-308. -
  4. [18][18] Baron-Cohen S. The extreme male brain theoryof autism. Trends Cogn Sci 2002; 6 :248-254. -
  5. [21][21] Baron-Cohen S, Leslie AM, Frith U. Does the autistic child have a 'theoryof mind'? Cognition 1985; 21 :37-46. -
  6. [24][24] Bauman ML, Kemper TL. Histoanatomic observations of the brain in earlyinfantile autism. Neurology 1985; 35 :866-874. -
  7. [29][29] Belmonte MK, Yurgelun-Todd DA. Functional Anatomyof Impaired Selective Attention and CompensatoryProcessing in Autism. Cogn Brain Res 2003; 17 :651-664. -
  8. [30][30] Belser RC, Sudhalter V. Arousal difficulties in males with fragile X syndrome: a preliminary report. Dev Brain Dysfunct 1995; 8 :270-279. -
  9. [33][33] Boucher J, Lewis V. Unfamiliar face recognition in relativelyable autistic children. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 1992; 33 :843-859. -
  10. [34][34] Boulanger LM, Huh GS, Shatz CJ. Neuronal plasticityand cellular immunity : shared molecular mechanisms. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2001; 11 :568-578. -
  11. [37][37] Burger K, Gimpl G, Fahrenholz F. Regulation of receptor function bycholesterol. Cell Mol Life Sci 2000; 57 :1577-1592. -
  12. [39][39] Bzd´ uch V, Behulova D, Skodova. Incidence of Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome in Slovakia. J Am Med Genet 2000; 90 :260. -
  13. [40][40] Cardon LR, Smith SD, Fulker DW, Kimberling WJ, Pennington BF, DeFries JC. Quantitative trait locus for reading disabilityon chromosome 6. Science 1994; 266 :276-279. -
  14. [44][44] Casanova MF, Buxhoeveden DP, Switala AE, RoyE. Minicolumnar pathologyin autism. Neurology 2002; 58 :428-432. -
  15. [51][51] Chang EF, Merzenich MM. Environmental noise retards auditorycortical development. Science 2003; 300 :498-502. -
  16. [52][52] Ciaranello AL, Ciaranello RD. The neurobiologyof infantile autism. Annu Rev Neurosci 1995; 18 :101-128. -
  17. [64][64] Courchesne E. Abnormal earlybrain development in autism. Mol Psychiatry 2002; 7 :S21-23. -
  18. [75][75] Court JA, Martin-Ruiz C, Graham A, PerryE. Nicotinic receptors in human brain: topographyand pathology. J Chem Neuroanat 2000; 20 :281-298. -
  19. [76][76] CritchleyHD, DalyEM, Bullmore ET, Williams SCR, Van Amelsvoort T, Robertson DM, Rowe A, Phillips M, McAlonan G, Howlin P, MurphyDGM. The functional neuroanatomyof social behaviour: changes in cerebral blood flow when people with autistic disorder process facial expressions. Brain 2000; 123 :2203-2212. -
  20. [78][78] Daniels WW, Warren RP, Odell JD, Maciulis A, Burger RA, Warren WL, Torres AR. Increased frequencyof the extended or ancestral haploty pe B44-SC30-DR4 in autism. Neuropsychobiology 1995; 32 :120-123. -
  21. [82][82] DeLoreyTM, Handforth A, Anagnostaras SG, Homanics GE, Minassian BA, Asatourian A, Fanselow MS, Delgado-Escueta A, Ellison GD, Olsen RW. Mice lacking the β 3 subunit of the GABA A receptor have the epilepsyphenoty pe and manyof the behavioral characteristics of Angelman sy ndrome. J Neurosci 1998; 18 :8505-8514. -
  22. [88][88] Folstein SE, Rosen-SheidleyB. Genetics of autism: complex aetiologyfor a heterogeneous disorder. Nat Rev Genet 2001; 2 :943-955. -
  23. [89][89] Fombonne E, Bolton P, Prior J, Jordan H, Rutter M. A familystudyof autism: cognitive patterns and levels in parents and siblings. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 1997; 38 :667-683. -
  24. [91][91] Frith U, Autism: Explaining the Enigma . Blackwell: Oxford, 1989. -
  25. [95][95] Geschwind DH, Sowinski J, Lord C, Iversen P, Shestack J, Jones P, Ducat L, Spence SJ. The autism genetic resource exchange: a resource for the studyof autism and related neuropsy chiatric conditions. Am J Hum Genet 2001; 69 :463-466. -
  26. [120][120] Irons M, Elias ER, Salen G, Tint GS, Batta AK. Defective cholesterol biosynthesis in Smith-LemliOpitz syndrome. Lancet 1993; 341 :1414. -
  27. [123][123] Ison JR, McAdam DW, Hammond GR. Latencyand amplitude changes in the acoustic startle reflex produced byvariations in auditoryprestimulation. Physiol Behav 1973; 10 :1035-1039. -
  28. [132][132] KelleyRI, Hennekam RCH. Smith-Lemli-Opitz Sy ndrome. In: Scriver CR, Beaudet AL, SlyWS, Valle D. (eds) The Metabolic and Molecular Basis of Inherited Disease 8/e. McGraw Hill: New York, 2000. -
  29. [138][138] Krause I, He X-S, Gershwin ME, Shoenfeld Y. Immune factors in autism: a critical review. J Autism Devel Disord 2002; 32 :337-345. -
  30. [141][141] Lamb JA, Parr JR, BaileyAJ, Monaco AP. Autism: in search of susceptibilitygenes. Neuromolecular Med 2002; 2 :11-28. -
  31. [151][151] Lucki I. The spectrum of behaviors influenced byserotonin. Biol Psychiatry 1998; 44 :151-162. -
  32. [155][155] McAlonan GM, DalyE, Kumari V, CritchleyHD, van Amelsvoort T, Suckling J, Simmons A, Sigmundsson T, Greenwood K, Russell A, Schmitz N, Happe F, Howlin P, MurphyDG. Brain anatomyand sensorimotor gating in Asperger's sy ndrome. Brain 2002; 125 :1594-1606. -
  33. [156][156] Miller LJ, McIntosh DN, McGrath J, Shyu V, Lampe M, Taylor AK, Tassone F, Neitzel K, Stackhouse T, Hagerman RJ. Electrodermal responses to sensorystimuli in individuals with fragile X sy ndrome: a preliminaryreport. Am J Med Genet 1999; 83 :268-279. -
  34. [160][160] M¨ uller R-A, Kleinhans N, Kemmotsu N, Pierce K, Courchesne E. Abnormal variabilityand distribution of functional maps in autism: an fMRI studyof visuomotor learning. Am J Psychiatry 2003; 160 :1847-1862. -
  35. [179][179] Piven J, Wzorek M, Landa R, Lainhart J, Bolton P, Chase GA, Folstein S. Personalitycharacteristics of the parents of autistic individuals. Psychol Med 1994; 24 :783-795. -
  36. [186][186] Pritchard JK. Are rare variants responsible for susceptibilityto complex diseases? Am J Hum Genet 2001; 69 :124-137. -
  37. [193][193] Rodier PM, Hyman SL. Early environmental factors in autism. Ment Retard Dev Disability Res Reviews 1998; 4 :121-128. -
  38. [213][213] Smith DW, Lemli L, Opitz JM. A newlyrecognized sy ndrome of multiple congenital anomalies. J Pediatr 1964; 64 :210-217. -
  39. [214][214] Smith IM. Motor functioning in Asperger's syndrome. In: Klin A, Volkmar FR, Sparrow SS. (eds) Asperger's Syndrome. The Guildford Press: New York, 2000. -
  40. [216][216] Stevens S, Gruzelier J. Electrodermal activityto auditorystimuli in autistic, retarded, and normal children. J Autism Dev Disord 1984; 14 :245-260. -
  41. [228][228] Toichi M, Kamio Y. Long-term memoryand levels-of-processing in autism. Neuropsychologia 2002; 40 :964-969. -
  42. [250][250] Warren RP, Foster A, Margaretten NC. Reduced natural killer cell activityin autism. J Amer Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 1987; 26 :333-335. -

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Belmonte, M. K., Cook, E. H., Anderson, G. M., Rubenstein, J. L. R., Greenough, W. T., Beckel-Mitchener, A., Courchesne, E., Boulanger, L. M., Powell, S. B., Levitt, P. R., Perry, E. K., Jiang, Y. H., DeLorey, T. M., & Tierney, E.
Affiliations
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • University of Chicago (US)
  • Yale University (US)
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
  • University of California San Diego (US)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • Vanderbilt University (US)
  • Newcastle University (GB)
  • Baylor College of Medicine (US)
  • Molecular Research Institute (US)
  • Kennedy Krieger Institute (US)
Corresponding author
Belmonte, M K
Venue
Molecular Psychiatry
Published
2004-03-23
Volume
9
Issue
7
Pages
646-663
ISSN
  • 1359-4184 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-5578
OpenAlex
W2139092938
Cited by
442
References
274
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 24
FWCI
2.05
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Molecular Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Nottingham Trent University's Institutional Repository (Nottingham Trent Repository) (acceptedVersion)
  • PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
  • PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, neural information processing, brain development, developmental trajectories, genetic syndromes, endophenotypes, animal models, activity-dependent development, neuroimaging, genetic susceptibility, autism treatment
MeSH terms
Animals, Autistic Disorder, Cognition Disorders, Humans

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review