Distractible Mice Offer Clues to Attention Deficit

Attention Deficit
 Tracing the effects of a specific gene deletion in mice revealed how it disrupts a brain circuit that filters out superfluous sensory input, such as background noise, so that the brain can focus on important information.
The findings suggest that defects in this circuit could underlie attention-related symptoms across different human behavioral disorders, and how treatment might be designed to correct it.
 About 1 percent of people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and intellectual disability have a mutation in the gene PTCHD1 (patched-domain containing protein 1). People with an altered PTCHD1 gene have symptoms that include attention deficit, hyperactivity, sleep abnormality, low muscle tone, and learning disability. (NIMH study)

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