A hyperactivated mTORC1–eIF4E pathway is linked to impaired synaptic plasticity in fragile X syndrome, an autistic disorder caused by lack of fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) due to mutation of the FMR1 gene (Wang et al., 2010; Auerbach et al., 2011; Santoro et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2012), suggesting that downstream mTOR signaling might be causally linked to ASDs. This evidence concerns the gene FMR1 and autism.