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Acetylcholine: Definition

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Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Synonyms

ACh; Cholinergic

Definition

Acetylcholine (ACh) is a neurotransmitter critical in an individual’s ability to assess their surroundings and respond accordingly. More specifically, ACh functions to evaluate the potential reward and/or threat in a certain stimuli or environmental change and act on it. With roles in regulating attention, cognitive flexibility, social interactions, and stereotypical behaviors, ACh has been heavily implicated in autism. ASD patients show unusually sized, numbered, and structured neurons in the acetylcholine output centers of the basal forebrain as well as decreased concentrations of choline, a precursor of ACh. Low levels of choline have also been correlated with autism severity. Postmortem studies reveal a reduction of ACh receptor and receptor subunits. At the genetic level, mutations and duplications in genes encoding various ACh receptor subunits have been found in ASD patients. Furthermore, mutagenesis, inhibition, and/or deletion of various...

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References and Reading

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Autism Program, Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, 06511, New Haven, CT, USA

    Karthikeyan Ardhanareeswaran

  2. Program in Neurodevelopment and Regeneration, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Karthikeyan Ardhanareeswaran & Karthikeyan Ardhanareeswaran

Authors
  1. Karthikeyan Ardhanareeswaran
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Correspondence to Karthikeyan Ardhanareeswaran .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    Fred R. Volkmar

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Ardhanareeswaran, K. (2015). Acetylcholine: Definition. In: Volkmar, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102053-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102053-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6435-8

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