The study of sensory phenotypes has great potential for increasing research translation between species, a necessity to decipher the neural mechanisms that contribute to higher-order differences in neurological conditions such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Over the past decade, despite separate advances in our understanding of the structural and functional differences within the brain of autistic and non-autistic individuals and in rodent models for ASD, researchers have had difficulty translating the findings in murine species to humans, mostly due to incompatibility in experimental methodologies used to screen for ASD phenotypes. Focusing on sensory phenotypes offers an avenue to close the species gap because sensory pathways are highly conserved across species and are affected by the same risk-factors as the higher-order brain areas mostly responsible for the diagnostic criteria for ASD. By first reviewing how sensory processing has been studied to date, we direct our focus to electrophysiological and behavioral techniques that can be used to study sensory phenotypes consistently across species. Using auditory sensory phenotypes as a template, we seek to improve the accessibility of translational methods by providing a framework for collecting cohesive data in both rodents and humans. Specifically, evoked-potentials, acoustic startle paradigms, and psychophysical detection/discrimination paradigms can be created and implemented in a coordinated and systematic fashion across species. Through careful protocol design and collaboration, sensory processing phenotypes can be harnessed to bridge the gap that exists between preclinical animal studies and human testing, so that mutually held questions in autism research can be answered.

中文翻译：

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缩小物种差距：研究与自闭症谱系障碍相关的感觉处理差异的转化方法

感觉表型的研究在增加物种之间的研究转化方面具有巨大潜力，有必要破译导致自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 等神经系统疾病高阶差异的神经机制。在过去的十年中，尽管我们对自闭症和非自闭症个体的大脑结构和功能差异以及 ASD 啮齿动物模型的理解取得了不同的进展，但研究人员仍难以将小鼠物种的发现转化为人类，主要是由于用于筛选 ASD 表型的实验方法不兼容。关注感觉表型提供了缩小物种差距的途径，因为感觉通路在物种间高度保守，并且受到与主要负责 ASD 诊断标准的高阶大脑区域相同的风险因素的影响。通过首先回顾迄今为止如何研究感觉处理，我们将重点放在电生理和行为技术上，这些技术可用于研究跨物种的感觉表型一致。使用听觉感官表型作为模板，我们试图通过提供一个框架来收集啮齿动物和人类的内聚数据，从而提高翻译方法的可访问性。具体来说，诱发电位、声惊吓范式、可以跨物种以协调和系统的方式创建和实施心理物理检测/歧视范式。通过仔细的方案设计和协作，可以利用感觉处理表型来弥合临床前动物研究和人体试验之间存在的差距，从而可以回答自闭症研究中相互提出的问题。