Visiting Speakers

Ariel Lyons-Warren, MD, PhD - Assistant Professor of Child Neurology Research Navigator, Texas Children’s Hospital

 Jul 29, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.

Children with autism can exhibit complex sensory phenotypes including both hyper and hypo sensitivity. Treating these sensory differences is challenging due to lack of understanding of the underlying circuit mechanisms. Recent work has suggested that peripheral somatosensory changes can cause autism features in mice. We therefore sought to understand the central and peripheral contributions of a common autism gene, NRXN1, to somatosensory function. First, we generated mice lacking NRXN1 throughout all neurons (Nes-Cre;NRXN1flox/flox) and mice lacking NRXN1 exclusively in dorsal root ganglion neurons (Adv-Cre;NRXN1flox/flox). We assessed somatosensory sensitivity using Von Frey filaments, hot plate and cold plate. We also assessed somatosensory reactivity using tape on back. We compared responses between experimental animals and littermate controls using student’s t-test. Mice lacking NRXN1 throughout all neurons exhibited hyper-sensitivity to hot and cold temperatures and decreased responsivity to a piece of tape on their back. There was no difference in sensitivity as measured using Von Frey filaments. In contrast, mice lacking NRXN1 in dorsal root ganglion neurons exhibited only a decreased responsivity to a piece of tape on their back, with no differences to temperature. Therefore, we conclude that NRXN1 causes temperature hypersensitivity via a central mechanism while causing decreased responsivity via a peripheral mechanism. Central vs peripheral contributions to sensory processing from the same gene may explain complex sensory phenotypes in autism.

Ariel Lyons-Warren is an assistant professor of child neurology at Baylor College of Medicine. She earned her bachelor degree in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University and then her MD/PhD at Washington University in St. Louis before completing a basic-neuroscience focused residency in child neurology at Texas Children's Hospital. Her research focuses on understanding the circuit mechanisms underlying sensory coding and the impact of disruption to these processes in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Her work spans animal models using a variety of behavioral, electrophysiological, and cellular molecular techniques to clinical trials characterizing patterns of sensory differences. She is particularly interested in the difference between hyper and hypo sensitivity measured objectively in anima

Host: Department of Neuroscience and the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience