Language Impairments in ASD Resulting from a Failed Domestication of the Human Brain.

ABSTRACT: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are pervasive neurodevelopmental disorders entailing social and cognitive deficits, including marked problems with language. Numerous genes have been associated with ASD, but it is unclear how language deficits arise from gene mutation or dysregulation. It is also unclear why ASD shows such high prevalence within human populations. Interestingly, the emergence of a modern faculty of language has been hypothesized to be linked to changes in the human brain/skull, but also to the process of self-domestication of the human species. It is our intention to show that people with ASD exhibit less marked domesticated traits at the morphological, physiological, and behavioral levels. We also discuss many ASD candidates represented among the genes known to be involved

SUBMITTER: Benitez-Burraco A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5002430 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature