BDNF Val66Met genotype determines hippocampus-dependent behavior via sensitivity to glucocorticoid signaling

Abstract

To our knowledge, this is the first analysis of de novo mutations in ASD, as indexed by birth order, as an explanation for the paternal age effect that simultaneously considered maternal age and family size. The SSC sample, which was limited to sporadic cases of ASD, presumed to be enriched for de novo mutations, is a particularly powerful sample to examine this question.