A rather unique feature of autism spectrum disorders is that many of the patients who suffer from them tend to show increased sensitivity to sound. When this phenomenon has been investigated, the majority trend has been to investigate the brain.

However, it seems that the answer may not lie in this organ, but rather in the peripheral nervous system. And it is that a team of researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina has found a certain hearing loss and mild damage to the auditory nerve in a preclinical model of autism spectrum disorders.

Amplified sensitivity to auditory signals

More specifically, they detail in the specialized medium Journal of Neuroscience, a thorough examination of the auditory nerve revealed abnormal supporting cells, called glia, degeneration similar to that produced by ageand inflammation. These findings underscore the importance of considering sensory organs and their interactions with the brain when understanding these types of disorders.

These conclusions are conclusive with previous work that had found that age-related hearing loss could cause the brain toincrease your response to reduced signals as a compensatory mechanism. In fact, the authors were trying to figure out if this dynamic might be behind the increased sensitivity in patients with autism spectrum disorders.

To do this, they created preclinical models, genetically engineering mice to have only one working copy of the MEF2C gene, which is known to cause behaviors and symptoms consistent with autism spectrum disorders.

The importance of sensory organs

First of all, measured the brain's responseto auditory cues using a modified version of a test commonly used to measure hearing loss in newborn babies. In this way, they were able to verify that the modified mice did indeed show a certain loss of hearing compared to the control group.

Subsequently, they measured the auditory nerve activity, which carries signals from the inner ear to the brain and analyzed in detail the nervous tissue, finding damage similar to that produced by age.

What is remarkable, however, is that while the brain's response to auditory signals was only slightly less than that seen in healthy mice, the nerve damage was very significant. This implies that, indeed, the brain increases your sensitivity as a mechanism to compensate for this problem.

Although the relationship between this hearing loss and the disorder cannot yet be considered definitive, these researchers believe that it is illustrative of how certain congenital sensory disordersor in the early stages of life, they could be influencing brain development and, perhaps, the genesis of certain disorders.

✅ Source of information https://www.20minutos.es/salud/actualidad/un-dano-congenito-del-nervio-auditivo-se-relaciona-con-los-trastornos-del-espectro-autista-5088127/

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