Neuroscientists at Harvard and MIT have identified, for the first time, a link between the activity of the neurotransmitter GABA and symptoms of autism — a finding that may pave the way for new methods of treating and diagnosing the disorder.
“This is the first connection in humans between a neurotransmitter in the brain and an autistic behavioral symptom,” Caroline Robertson, a postdoc at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the study’s lead author, said in a statement.