Scholarly article from 13 March 2020
The Neurochemistry of Autism
Abstract:
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to complex neurobehavioral and
neurodevelopmental conditions characterized by impaired social interaction and communication,
restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior or interests, and altered sensory processing.
Environmental, immunological, genetic, and epigenetic factors are implicated in the pathophysiology
of autism and provoke the occurrence of neuroanatomical and neurochemical events relatively early
in the development of the central nervous system. Many neurochemical pathways are involved in
determining ASD; however, how these complex networks interact and cause the onset of the core
symptoms of autism remains unclear. Further studies on neurochemical alterations in autism are
necessary to clarify the early neurodevelopmental variations behind the enormous heterogeneity of
autism spectrum disorder, and therefore lead to new approaches for the treatment and prevention
of autism. In this review, we aim to delineate the state-of-the-art main research findings about the
neurochemical alterations in autism etiology, and focuses on gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) and
glutamate, serotonin, dopamine, N-acetyl aspartate, oxytocin and arginine-vasopressin, melatonin,
vitamin D, orexin, endogenous opioids, and acetylcholine. We also aim to suggest a possible related
therapeutic approach that could improve the quality of ASD interventions. Over one hundred
references were collected through electronic database searching in Medline and EMBASE (Ovid),
Scopus (Elsevier), ERIC (Proquest), PubMed, and the Web of Science (ISI).