Illustration by Laurène Boglio

Nelson Spruston of Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, detailed his team’s preprint, “Learning produces a hippocampal cognitive map in the form of an orthogonalized state machine,” posted on bioRxiv 7 August.

1/11 How are cognitive maps formed during learning?

Very excited to share new work by outstanding co-first authors @sunw37 and @JohanWinn and other wonderful collaborators @HHMIJanelia https://t.co/W9IgIPZYHH

— Nelson Spruston (@nspruston) August 8, 2023

Jiannis Taxidis of the University of Toronto commented on Spruston’s study.

This is the most impressive CA1 2-photon imaging I ve ever seen! https://t.co/ItKBXIDI2L

— Jiannis Taxidis (@JiannisTax) August 8, 2023

Kevin Wright of Oregon Health and Science University in Portland detailed his team’s preprint, “Intrinsic control of DRG sensory neuron diversification by Pten,” posted on bioRxiv 6 August. Check out Spectrum’s deep dive on the peripheral nervous system, published in April.

What’s that sound? Why its another fresh preprint from the Wright Lab. This one, led by twitter-less PD Alejandra Fernandez (going on the the job market this year!!!) looks at DRG development. https://t.co/teHbArF0EE

Buckle up for a tweetorial! 1/n

— Dr. Kevin Wright (@kevinmawright) August 7, 2023

Patrick Kerstein of Purdue University replied to Wright.

Hopefully a splash

— Dr. Kevin Wright (@kevinmawright) August 7, 2023

Elisabeth Sheridan of Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, linked to her study, “The reach and accuracy of information on autism on TikTok,” published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 6 August.

New study from @Drexelautism team in JADD on #autism misinformation on TikTok. Led by our incredible & social media-savvy students Diego Aragon-Guevara & Grace Castle, with Dr. Giacomo Vivanti. Important to consider implications for autistic folks & their families #autismresearch pic.twitter.com/c97l8NKJX6

— Elisabeth Sheridan, PhD (@EHSheridanPhD) August 7, 2023

Inge-Marie Eigsti of the University of Connecticut in Mansfield, Jennifer Veilleux of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and Alycia Halladay of the Autism Science Foundation replied to Sheridan.

Thanks @ingemarieeigsti! Agreed- this is affecting referrals. Given the reach of TikTok autism content, it’s important that stakeholders in community (including autistic folks, family members, and clinicians interfacing with autism) are aware of the unfiltered nature of the info.

— Elisabeth Sheridan, PhD (@EHSheridanPhD) August 7, 2023

This is so important. We’ve gotten so many referrals for adult autism assessment from people who see themselves represented in TikTok videos. https://t.co/1T7SC19nXv

— Dr. Jenn Veilleux (@JennCVeilleux) August 8, 2023

Thank you for this! The intent behind some of these videos may have been good – but this is not the way to get real information. https://t.co/VrnZD6OrDh

— Alycia Halladay (@AHalladay212) August 7, 2023

Segun Fatumo of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine detailed his study, “Whole-genome sequencing across 449 samples spanning 47 ethnolinguistic groups provides insights into genetic diversity in Nigeria,” published in Cell Genomics 8 August.

So beautiful to see a part of the Nigerian 100K genomes project published today @CellGenomics

47 unique ethnolinguistic groups from 449 Nigerians.

We provide catalog of novel and medically relevant variation

Great work led by @codushlaine @_EshaJoshi @aabiddanda

RT ????

1/4 pic.twitter.com/JQKqYH3PDA

— Segun Fatumo (@SFatumo) August 8, 2023

Maria Bierlein of Basel University in Switzerland linked to her study, “Empathy deficits, callous-unemotional traits and structural underpinnings in autism spectrum disorder and conduct disorder youth,” published in Autism Research 7 August.

Sarah Abu Hijleh of the University of California, Riverside, linked to her study, “Increased body weight in mice with fragile X messenger ribonucleoprotein 1 (Fmr1) gene mutation is associated with hypothalamic dysfunction,” published in Scientific Reports 4 August.

Aimé Lumaka of the University of Liège in Belgium described his study, “Usefulness of automated image analysis for recognition of the fragile X syndrome gestalt in Congolese subjects,” published in the European Journal of Medical Genetics 4 August.

Sarit Aharoni of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, Israel, linked to her study, “PSMC1 variant causes a novel neurological syndrome,” published in Clinical Genetics 21 July.

Arthur Caplan of New York University linked to the article “Exclusive: Shake-up at top psychiatric institute following suicide in clinical trial,” published in Spectrum 31 July. A follow-up story, published 10 August in The New York Times, quoted Spectrum’s article.

Exclusive: Shake-up at top psychiatric institute following suicide in clinical trial https://t.co/SRZDQXz44l via @Spectrum

— Arthur Caplan (@ArthurCaplan) August 7, 2023

If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, help is available. Here is a worldwide directory of resources and hotlines that you can call for support.

That’s it for this week’s Community Newsletter! If you have any suggestions for interesting social posts you saw in the autism research sphere, feel free to send an email to [email protected].

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Cite this article: https://doi.org/10.53053/NFYW4461