BACKGROUND Kinship theory suggests that genomic imprinting could account for phenotypic behaviors that increase (in the case of Angelman syndrome) or decrease (for Prader-Willi syndrome) the drive to access social resources (adult contact) depending on the imprinting parent-of-origin. Difficult to manage behaviors, such as aggression that is common in Angelman syndrome, could serve the function...

Angelman syndrome is a neurogenetic disorder resulting in refractory epilepsy and profound psychomotor retardation in its most prevalent form, caused by deletion of maternal chromosome 15q11-13. We report the case of a 29-year-old, mentally retarded man with unusual electroencephalographic changes during periods of atypical absence status epilepticus, a previously unreported manifestation of th...

Angelman syndrome is a neurogenetic disorder associated with unique behaviors and characteristics, including an unusually happy expression, inability to speak, ataxia, mental retardation, and abnormal EEG. Previous research has suggested that smiling and laughing behaviors in Angelman syndrome are inappropriate, excessive, and dissociated from contextual events. In the present study, the variab...

Experience-dependent maturation of neocortical circuits is required for normal sensory and cognitive abilities, which are distorted in neurodevelopmental disorders. We tested whether experience-dependent neocortical modifications require Ube3a, an E3 ubiquitin ligase whose dysregulation has been implicated in autism and Angelman syndrome. Using visual cortex as a model, we found that experience...

Angelman syndrome is a disorder in humans [2] that causes neurological symptoms such as lack of speech, jerky movements, and insomnia. A human cell has two copies of twenty-three chromosomes for a total of forty-six?one copy from its mother and one from its father. But in the case of Angelman syndrome, the maternal chromosome numbered 15 has a mutation or deletion in its DNA and a gene on the p...

Angelman syndrome is a disorder in humans [2] that causes neurological symptoms such as lack of speech, jerky movements, and insomnia. A human cell has two copies of twenty-three chromosomes for a total of forty-six?one copy from its mother and one from its father. But in the case of Angelman syndrome, the maternal chromosome numbered 15 has a mutation or deletion in its DNA and a gene on the p...

UNLABELLED Angelman Syndrome is a neurodevelopmental condition with a characteristic phenotype that includes epilepsy and lack of communication. We describe its first reported association with Schatzki's ring that presented as a life-long history of intermittent retching. Because of associated cognitive dysfunction, careful diagnostic consideration is required to detect this underlying conditio...

Angelman syndrome is a disorder in humans [2] that causes neurological symptoms such as lack of speech, jerky movements, and insomnia. A human cell has two copies of twenty-three chromosomes for a total of forty-six?one copy from its mother and one from its father. But in the case of Angelman syndrome, the maternal chromosome numbered 15 has a mutation or deletion in its DNA and a gene on the p...

Paternal or maternal deletions in the 15q11.2-q13 region are known to result in Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) or Angelman syndrome (AS), respectively. Maternal duplications in 15q11.2-q13 have been found in patients with autism. A population of adults with moderate to profound mental retardation was studied to examine the usefulness of PCR based molecular methods in screening for proximal chromos...

Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic phenomenon resulting in parent-of-origin-specific gene expression that is regulated by a differentially methylated region. Gene mutations or failures in the imprinting process lead to the development of imprinting disorders, such as Angelman syndrome. The symptoms of Angelman syndrome are caused by the absence of functional UBE3A protein in neurons of the bra...