A salient theme emerging from recent research is that many mental disorders have a significant neurodevelopmental component. While the genetic and/or environmental risk factors of these behavioral disorders, e.g., schizophrenia, autism, drug-abuse and intellectual disability, are being discovered at a rapid pace and new etiological theories proposed, empirical studies examining the validity of these theories are lagging behind. Among many challenges to this is the critical issue of how to "model" uniquely human disorders, often of higher order brain dysfunctions, in experimental animals. Nevertheless, recent years have seen several innovative ways to test the assumptions about the origins and pathology of the neurodevelopmental disorders. For example, recent studies using induced pluripotent stem cells, animal models with genetic disruptions and opto/chemogenetic manipulations of brain circuits in rodents and non-human primates are greatly advancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders.
This Research Topic aims to collect the state of the art research work examining cellular, molecular and circuit-level understanding of the mechanisms of neurodevelopmental disorders. We want to present studies with novel ways of designing animal "models" using genetic and/or environmental risk factors of neurodevelopmental disorders, newer and unbiased automated methods of analyzing animal behaviors and translational studies with potential for diagnosis and/or treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders.
This collection welcomes research articles with animal studies exploring neurodevelopmental mechanisms in any mental or neurological disorders. However, special emphasis will be given to animal studies on aspects of brain development (cellular, molecular, brain circuits) in schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, adolescent drug-abuse and intellectual disabilities. Studies in non-human primates and translational studies are especially welcome.
A salient theme emerging from recent research is that many mental disorders have a significant neurodevelopmental component. While the genetic and/or environmental risk factors of these behavioral disorders, e.g., schizophrenia, autism, drug-abuse and intellectual disability, are being discovered at a rapid pace and new etiological theories proposed, empirical studies examining the validity of these theories are lagging behind. Among many challenges to this is the critical issue of how to "model" uniquely human disorders, often of higher order brain dysfunctions, in experimental animals. Nevertheless, recent years have seen several innovative ways to test the assumptions about the origins and pathology of the neurodevelopmental disorders. For example, recent studies using induced pluripotent stem cells, animal models with genetic disruptions and opto/chemogenetic manipulations of brain circuits in rodents and non-human primates are greatly advancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders.
This Research Topic aims to collect the state of the art research work examining cellular, molecular and circuit-level understanding of the mechanisms of neurodevelopmental disorders. We want to present studies with novel ways of designing animal "models" using genetic and/or environmental risk factors of neurodevelopmental disorders, newer and unbiased automated methods of analyzing animal behaviors and translational studies with potential for diagnosis and/or treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders.
This collection welcomes research articles with animal studies exploring neurodevelopmental mechanisms in any mental or neurological disorders. However, special emphasis will be given to animal studies on aspects of brain development (cellular, molecular, brain circuits) in schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, adolescent drug-abuse and intellectual disabilities. Studies in non-human primates and translational studies are especially welcome.