Context Autism is considered the most heritable of neurodevelopmental disorders, mainly because of the large difference in concordance rates between monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Objective To provide rigorous quantitative estimates of genetic heritability of autism and the effects of shared environment. Design, Setting, and Participants Twin pairs with at least 1 twin with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) born between 1987 and 2004were identified through the California Department of Developmental Services. Main Outcome Measures Structured diagnostic assessments (Autism Diagnostic Interview–Revised and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) were completed on 192 twin pairs. Concordance rates were calculated and parametric models were fitted for 2 definitions, 1 narrow (strict autism) and 1 broad (ASD). Results For strict autism, probandwise concordance for male twins was 0.58 for 40 monozygotic pairs (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.42–0.74) and 0.21 for 31 dizygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.09–0.43); for female twins, the concordance was 0.60 for 7 monozygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.28–0.90) and 0.27 for 10 dizygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.09–0.69). For ASD, the probandwise concordance for male twins was 0.77 for 45 monozygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.65–0.86) and 0.31 for 45 dizygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.16–0.46); for female twins, the concordance was 0.50 for 9 monozygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.16–0.84) and 0.36 for 13 dizygotic pairs (95% CI, 0.11–0.60). A large proportion of the variance in liability can be explained by shared environmental factors (55%; 95% CI, 9%–81% for autism and 58%; 95% CI, 30%–80% for ASD) in addition to moderate genetic heritability (37%; 95% CI, 8%–84% for autism and 38%; 95% CI, 14%–67% for ASD). Conclusion Susceptibility to ASD has moderate genetic heritability and a substantial shared twin environmental component.

The Study to Explore Early Development (SEED), a multisite investigation addressing knowledge gaps in autism phenotype and etiology, aims to: (1) characterize the autism behavioral phenotype and associated developmental, medical, and behavioral conditions and (2) investigate genetic and environmental risks with emphasis on immunologic, hormonal, gastrointestinal, and sociodemographic characteristics. SEED uses a case–control design with population-based ascertainment of children aged 2–5 years with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and children in two control groups—one from the general population and one with non-ASD developmental problems. Data from parent-completed questionnaires, interviews, clinical evaluations, biospecimen sampling, and medical record abstraction focus on the prenatal and early postnatal periods. SEED is a valuable resource for testing hypotheses regarding ASD characteristics and causes.

This mini-symposium aims to integrate recent insights from anatomy, behavior, and neurophysiology, highlighting the anatomical organization, behavioral significance, and information-processing mechanisms of corticostriatal interactions. In this summary of topics, which is not meant to provide a comprehensive survey, we will first review the anatomy of corticostriatal circuits, comparing different ways by which "loops" of cortical-basal ganglia circuits communicate. Next, we will address the causal importance and systems-neurophysiological mechanisms of corticostriatal interactions for memory, emphasizing the communication between hippocampus and ventral striatum during contextual conditioning. Furthermore, ensemble recording techniques have been applied to compare information processing in the dorsal and ventral striatum to predictions from reinforcement learning theory. We will next discuss how neural activity develops in corticostriatal areas when habits are learned. Finally, we will evaluate the role of GABAergic interneurons in dynamically transforming cortical inputs into striatal output during learning and decision making.

Pavlovian cues for rewards become endowed with incentive salience, guiding "wanting" to their learned reward. Usually, cues are "wanted" only if their rewards have ever been "liked," but here we show that mesocorticolimbic systems can recompute "wanting" de novo by integrating novel physiological signals with a cue's preexisting associations to an outcome that lacked hedonic value. That is, a cue's incentive salience can be recomputed adaptively. We demonstrate that this recomputation is encoded in neural signals coursing through the ventral pallidum. Ventral pallidum neurons do not ordinarily fire vigorously to a cue that predicts the previously "disliked" taste of intense salt, although they do fire to a cue that predicts the taste of previously "liked" sucrose. Yet we show that neural firing rises dramatically to the salt cue immediately and selectively when that cue is encountered in a never-before-experienced state of physiological salt depletion. Crucially, robust neural firing to the salt cue occurred the first time it was encountered in the new depletion state (in cue-only extinction trials), even before its associated intense saltiness has ever been tasted as positively "liked" (salt taste had always been "disliked" before). The amplification of incentive salience did not require additional learning about the cue or the newly positive salt taste. Thus dynamic recomputation of cue-triggered "wanting" signals can occur in real time at the moment of cue re-encounter by combining previously learned Pavlovian associations with novel physiological information about a current state of specific appetite.

The proposed revision for Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders--Fifth Edition (DSM-5) represents a shift from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders--Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). As the proposed DSM-5 criteria require a higher minimum number of symptoms to be present compared to DSM-IV-TR, there have been some concerns about the impact that this will have on diagnostic outcomes. Therefore, the current study aimed to compare diagnostic outcomes using both DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 criteria for 132 children. Of the 111 participants who received an ASD diagnosis under DSM-IV-TR, 26 did not meet DSM-5 criteria. The majority of these had received a DSM-IV-TR PDD-NOS diagnosis. Implications of the results and the proposed DSM-5 changes to the ASD criteria are discussed.