APC and autism: Also, J L Mohn et al. found that deletion of the APC gene in brain neurons leads to multiple comprehensive neurodevelopmental deficits, including learning and memory deficits and autism-like behaviors, and that deletion of APC in the hippocampus leads to increased density of synaptic spines, alterations in synaptic function, and associated changes in molecular modifications and cellular adhesion complexes (Mohn et al. 2014).