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To test the hypothesis that ApoE4 may be involved in cognitive deficits associated with aging, we investigated the impact of APOE4 status and aging on the flexibility and memory components of spatial learning in mice. Young adult (6 months) and middle-aged (14 months) ApoE4, ApoE3 and C57BL/6 male mice were tested for flexibility in an aquatic Y-maze, and for spatio-temporal memory acquisition in the Starmaze. Our results revealed a flexibility deficit of the 6-month-old ApoE4 mice compared to controls. However, this deficit was not associated with spatio-temporal memory deficit at the same age. Importantly, the ApoE4 flexibility deficit did not increase with age, nor turn into memory deficit, or was able to predict individual variations of memory performance at 14 months. By contrast, control ApoE3 mice showed a decline of flexibility at 14 months resulting in performance similar to that of ApoE4. Overall, our results suggest that ApoE4 could be associated with an acceleration of the flexibility decrease otherwise observed in normal aging., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: The neuroanatomical bases of autism spectrum disorder remain largely unknown. Among the most widely discussed candidate endophenotypes, differences in cerebellar volume have been often reported as statistically significant., Methods: We aimed at objectifying this possible alteration by performing a systematic meta-analysis of the literature and an analysis of the ABIDE (Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange) cohort. Our meta-analysis sought to determine a combined effect size of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis on different measures of the cerebellar anatomy as well as the effect of possible factors of variability across studies. We then analyzed the cerebellar volume of 328 patients and 353 control subjects from the ABIDE project., Results: The meta-analysis of the literature suggested a weak but significant association between autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and increased cerebellar volume (p = .049, uncorrected), but the analysis of ABIDE did not show any relationship. The studies meta-analyzed were generally underpowered; however, the number of statistically significant findings was larger than expected., Conclusions: Although we could not provide a conclusive explanation for this excess of significant findings, our analyses would suggest publication bias as a possible reason. Finally, age, sex, and IQ were important sources of cerebellar volume variability, although independent of autism diagnosis., (Copyright © 2017 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)