ArticleJournal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry2018
Maternal Serotonin Levels Are Associated With Cognitive Ability and Core Symptoms in Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Article in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- TPH1-dependent maternal hyposerotonemia: long-term effects on adult wild-type mouse offspring.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Autism and Cortical Thickness Deviation From Neurotypical Controls: Evidence for a Spatial Association With Serotonin Receptors.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2026Article
- Advancing understanding of the mechanisms of autism spectrum disorder through perinatal risk factors.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Review
- Maternal Serotonin Levels and Neurodevelopmental Severity in Autistic Children: A Partial Replication and Extension.JAACAP open · 2025Article
- Perinatal serotonin signalling dynamically influences the development of cortical GABAergic circuits with consequences for lifelong sensory encoding.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Contribution of the serotonergic system to developmental brain abnormalities in autism spectrum disorder.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2024Review
- A Systematic Review on Autism and Hyperserotonemia: State-of-the-Art, Limitations, and Future Directions.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Brain serotonin and serotonin transporter expression in male and female postnatal rat offspring in response to perturbed early life dietary exposures.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Article
- Microbiota profiling reveals alteration of gut microbial neurotransmitters in a mouse model of autism-associated 16p11.2 microduplication.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Identification of subgroups of children in the Australian Autism Biobank using latent class analysis.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2023Article
- Role of Serotoninergic Antidepressants in the Development of Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review.Cureus · 2022Review
- Perspective: Chicken Models for Studying the Ontogenetic Origin of Neuropsychiatric Disorders.Biomedicines · 2022Article
- Gut Microbial Profile Is Associated With the Severity of Social Impairment and IQ Performance in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- microRNAs and Gene-Environment Interactions in Autism: Effects of Prenatal Maternal Stress and theFrontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- Developing Brain Glucose Transporters, Serotonin, Serotonin Transporter, and Oxytocin Receptor Expression in Response to Early-Life Hypocaloric and Hypercaloric Dietary, and Air Pollutant Exposures.Developmental neuroscience · 2021Article
- Gestational Factors throughout Fetal Neurodevelopment: The Serotonin Link.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Differential serotonin transporter (5-HTT) and 5-HTJournal of neurochemistry · 2019Article
- Blood platelet research in autism spectrum disorders: In search of biomarkers.Research and practice in thrombosis and haemostasis · 2019Review
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 10 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThe serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine [HT]) system has long been implicated in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Whole-blood 5-HT level (WB5-HT) is a stable, heritable biomarker that is elevated in more than 25% of children with ASD. Recent findings indicate that the maternal 5-HT system may influence embryonic neurodevelopment, but maternal WB5-HT has not been examined in relation to ASD phenotypes.
methodWB5-HT levels were obtained from 181 individuals (3-27 years of age) diagnosed with ASD, 99 of their fathers, and 119 of their mothers. Standardized assessments were used to evaluate cognitive, behavioral, and language phenotypes.
resultsExploratory regression analyses found relationships between maternal WB5-HT and nonverbal IQ (NVIQ), Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) Nonverbal Communication Algorithm scores, and overall adaptive function on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-II. Latent class analysis identified a three-class structure in the assessment data, describing children with low, intermediate, and high severity across measures of behavior, cognition, and adaptive function. Mean maternal WB5-HT differed across classes, with the lowest maternal WB5-HT levels seen in the highest-severity group (Welch F
conclusionMaternal WB5-HT is associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring with ASD. Prospective, longitudinal studies will be needed to better understand the relationship between the function of the maternal serotonin system during pregnancy and brain development. Further studies in animal models may be able to reveal the mechanisms underlying these findings.
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