Prof Ethan Scott shares his sensory processing research ahead of Autistic Pride Day
Autistic Pride Day, Tuesday 18 June, is a day for individuals with autism, to celebrate their neurodiversity and differences. It’s also an opportunity to provide education and highlight the innovative research of Prof Ethan Scott, Dept Anatomy & Physiology, who received a NHMRC 2023 Investigator Grant for his research ‘Assessing the structure and function of brain-wide sensory networks.’
Autism is a lifelong and complex neurodevelopmental condition characterised by difficulties in social communication, repetitive behaviors, and restricted interests.
Individuals with autism, also referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), display unique developmental patterns compared to those without autism. They exhibit distinctive ways of thinking, moving, interacting, sensing, and processing that might not conform to conventional expectations.
1 in 70 Australians are on the autism spectrum
Prof Ethan Scott and his team are researching how key sensory symptoms of autism arise using zebrafish models.
Image: Prof Ethan Scott
Prof Scott’s group has developed cutting-edge methods to define whole-brain networks, including the fine structures and functions of individual brain cells. Their research uses these technologies to explain how the brain encodes sensory information, and how sensory networks change in novel genetic models of autism.
The Scott Laboratory works beyond neuroscience incorporating optical physics and computational biology, a multi-disciplinary approach to research Prof Scott says has been really exciting and rewarding, and credits for a specific innovation of optical trapping in the vestibular system, and the ability to target particular circuits in the brain for manipulation.
Image: The Scott Laboratory
The group are using optical methods for studying zebrafish as they are small and transparent; basic sensory processing between fish and people remain evolutionary conserved; many parts of the brain that perform sensory processing are homologous; and they allow the collection of data, such as activity in individual neurons across the brain, conserved circuits and behaviour --which cannot be done in humans or mammalian model systems.
Zebrafish can teach us fundamentals about sensory processing that are relevant to autism – especially the differences in sensory processing present in autism.
Prof Scott’s research aims to describe how information flows through the brain's circuits and networks when animals perceive and respond to events in their environment. And by describing how the systems work during normal sensation and how the networks are altered in the genetic models of autism, will gain insights about how the same circuits and networks might change in certain autistic people.
This fundamental research project was awarded a NHMRC 2023 Investigator Grant.
About
Prof Ethan Scott studied molecular genetics at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, completed his PhD in neuroscience at Stanford University. In 2007 he established his own lab at the University of Queensland, before moving to the Department of Anatomy & Physiology (School of Biomedical Sciences) at the University of Melbourne in 2023.