CHRNA7 and autism: Although CHRFAM7A expression has been associated with neurocognitive disorders such as schizophrenia, psychosis, bipolar disorder, autism, and dementia (33, 34, 35), the functional role of the chimeric gene was long unidentified until we reported that its product, the dupα7 subunit, acted as a dominant negative regulator of α7-nAChR-induced currents in a pioneering electrophysiological study conducted in Xenopus oocytes (36).