Laboratory of Autism and Translational Social Neuroscience
PEÑAGARIKANO LAB
Established in 2015
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Cerebellum alterations crop up in mice missing autism gene
Spectrum News
January 12, 2021
The cerebellum is best known for its role in motor coordination, but scientists increasingly understand it to be involved in a range of other processes including language, cognition and social behaviors. People with a mutated copy of CNTNAP2 often have intellectual disability, sensory issues and autism...
Understanding Autism
Campusa UPV/EHU
June 12, 2019
The UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country is coordinating a European research consortium on autistic disorders
UPV/EHU Newsletter
November 19, 2018
ERA-NET NEURON, the European network devoted to conducting research into neurosciences, has provided funding amounting to 800,000 euros for a project to study autism; the project is being led by the researcher Olga Peñagarikano of the UPV/EHU’s Faculty of Medicine. The programme, which is being coordinated from the UPV/EHU, is being run in conjunction with another three research groups in France, Belgium and Germany to conduct research into the neurobiological causes of autism.
Building Bridges through Science
UPV/EHU Newsletter
January 07, 2018
Over a hundred researchers (122), with various Nobel prize winners among them, from 82 research centres spread across 22 countries, have put their names to ‘The Science Bridge’, a statement to promote collaboration between the different cultures of the Middle East and West. The article has been published by the scientific journal Neuron. Researchers from the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country figure among those who have signed. So far it has received the support of over 200 science people from across the world, 29 of whom are Nobel prize winners.
New options for treating autism
UPV/EHU Newsletter
November 17, 2015
A UPV/EHU researcher, who has had a long trajectory in the study of autism and the relationship between oxytocin and this condition, has participated in a piece of research that has served to demonstrate that the release of oxytocin leads to an increase in the production of anandamide, which causes mice to display a preference for interacting socially. This new mechanism by which oxytocin could be involved in social behaviour has been published recently in the prestigious scientific journal PNAS.
Mouse study bolsters case for oxytocin in autism
SPECTRUM NEWS
February 01, 2015
Oxytocin has been tenuously tied to trust, monogamy and a slew of other social behaviors. It has also long been eyed as a treatment for autism, but trials in people with the disorder have yielded conflicting results. A new study, published 21 January in Science Translational Medicine, bolsters the case for the so-called ‘trust hormone’ as an autism therapy, finding that it eases social deficits in a mouse model of the disorder.
Oxytocin boosts social skills in mice with autism-like symptoms
AAAS NEWS
January 21, 2015
The hormone oxytocin can stimulate mice with autism-like symptoms to be more social, according to a new study. The research on young mice suggests a potentially critical window during early development when oxytocin can produce long-lasting benefits. The findings are published in the 21 January issue of Science Translational Medicine.
Top 10 Autism Research Achievements of 2011
AUTISM SPEAKS
December 18, 2011
This September, scientists at University of California, Los Angeles debuted a new mouse that may represent a more useful animal model for studying autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and testing potential treatments. The mouse shows more behavioral and biological similarities to people with ASD than do most previous mouse models. It also responds to a drug (risperidone) already approved for treating some symptoms of ASD. This suggests that the mice may be particularly suited for testing promising new medicines aimed at relieving autism’s most disabling symptoms.
Mice that mirror autism
NATURE-RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
October 31, 2011
Understanding the pathophysiology of autism, and ultimately the development of treatments for impairments associated with the condition, is greatly dependent on reliable animal models. As described in a paper published in Cell, mice lacking contactin-associated protein-like 2 (Cntnap2) recapitulate the three core symptoms of autism...