Prenatal Origins of ASD: The When, What, and How of ASD Development

ASD begins in prenatal life.In Epoch-1 (first to third trimesters), cell proliferation, neurogenesis, cell fate, and migration are disrupted. In Epoch-2 (third trimester and early postnatal life), cortical wiring is disrupted, including neurite outgrowth, synaptogenesis, and neural network organization.ASD is highly heritable. Most ASD risk genes are expressed in prenatal life and fall into two major groups, broadly expressed regulatory genes...