RT Journal Article
T1 The oscillopathic nature of language deficits in autism : from genes to language evolution
A1 Benítez Burraco, Antonio
A1 Murphy, Elliot
AB Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are pervasive neurodevelopmental disorders involvinga number of deficits to linguistic cognition. The gap between genetics and thepathophysiology of ASD remains open, in particular regarding its distinctive linguisticprofile. The goal of this article is to attempt to bridge this gap, focusing on how theautistic brain processes language, particularly through the perspective of brain rhythms.Due to the phenomenon of pleiotropy, which may take some decades to overcome,we believe that studies of brain rhythms, which are not faced with problems of thisscale, may constitute a more tractable route to interpreting language deficits in ASDand eventually other neurocognitive disorders. Building on recent attempts to link neuraloscillations to certain computational primitives of language, we show that interpretinglanguage deficits in ASD as oscillopathic traits is a potentially fruitful way to constructsuccessful endophenotypes of this condition. Additionally, we will show that candidategenes for ASD are overrepresented among the genes that played a role in the evolutionof language. These genes include (and are related to) genes involved in brain rhythmicity.We hope that the type of steps taken here will additionally lead to a better understandingof the comorbidity, heterogeneity, and variability of ASD, and may help achieve a bettertreatment of the affected populations.
PB Frontiers Media
SN 1662-5161
YR 2016
FD 2016
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10272/11926
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10272/11926
LA eng
NO Benítez Burraco, A.,  Murphy, E.: "The oscillopathic nature of language deficits in autism : from genes to language evolution". Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Vol. 10, article 120, (2016). DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2016.00120
NO Preparation of this work was supported in part by funds from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant numbers FFI-2013-43823-P and FFI2014-61888-EXP to AB-B). This work was also supported by an Economic and Social Research Council scholarship (1474910). The authors would also like to thank the two reviewers for their valuable comments.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 31 may 2026