Drugs Hint At Potential Reversal Of Autism

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A mutation, called Fragile X, on the X chromosome can cause retardation and autism. Seen here, a microscopic visualization of X chromosomes.

Roger Diehl, a college freshman with Asperger's and depression, and his mother, Sita Diehl, answer questions about what parents and education specialists can do to help kids with learning disabilities or mental illness make a strong transition to college.

Read the Q&A

Scientific researchers can spend years in the lab on obscure topics, like how a sea slug remembers or how a fruit fly sees color. But every now and then, a basic scientist makes a discovery that changes human lives.

Mark Bear, who directs the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, is one of those basic scientists. He's discovered a system in the brain that could change the lives of thousands of people with the genetic disorder known as Fragile X Syndrome.

Fragile X is a mutation on the X chromosome that can cause mental retardation and autism. Until now, there has been no treatment.

But Bear discovered that the mutation responsible for Fragile X appears to disrupt a system in the brain that regulates synapses the connections between brain cells. He says the system works a bit like a car.

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Drugs Hint At Potential Reversal Of Autism