Abstract
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a highly heritable and life - long neurodevelopmental disorder with a reported prevalence as high as 1/100 in the general population, affecting a large number of people worldwide. Deficits in social behavior and interactions constitute a core and most prevalent symptom of ASD. Thus currently untreatable this deficit affects approximate 1% of general populations. Although neither neural nor genetic backgrounds for pathophysiology of autistic social dysfunction have yet been uncovered, recently, an increasing number of studies have revealed neural and genetic correlates of human social cognition and behavior and their dysfunctions. To promote integration of researches from various related areas for further development, this symposia covered speakers who utilized genetic examinations and functional and structural neuroimaging in both clinical and non - clinical populations. In their studies, research modalities were occasionally applied as combinations of multi - modalities such as studies examining association between functional neuroimaging indices and polymorphisms in related genes. We discussed across modalities and provided the current model for neurogenetic understandings of autistic social deficits. Such understandings can further provide candidate molecules for pharmacotherapy of autistic core symptoms.
