Autism at the crossroads: determining the phenotype matters for neuroscience

Abstract

Reviews the book, Understanding autism: From basic neuroscience to treatment by S. O. Moldin and J. L. R. Rubenstein (see record 2006-09005-000). The volume includes chapters on epidemiology, pharmacological and psychosocial approaches to intervention and an analysis of the considerable costs to society of autism. However, the main focus of the book is on the biology of autism. A mature neuroscience of autism will need to investigate links back from the brain to heterogeneous genetic and epigenetic etiologies, and also forward from the brain to the impairments in cognition, behavior and development that characterize the complex range of conditions and presentations that we currently can still only describe as 'the autism phenotype.' This book provides a useful summary of where the science of understanding the autistic brain has arrived and provides glimpses of the advances we can anticipate in the next decade. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).