CTNNB1 and autism: More recently identified autism susceptibility genes were also enriched in the thalamus: DEAF1 encoding a transcriptional regulator, ATP1A3 encoding the Alpha-3 subunit of the Na+/K+ pump27 and GABBR2 encoding a GABAB receptor subunit28, as were genes with broad developmental functions, such as CTNNB1 encoding the key Wnt signalling transducer β-catenin29,30 (Fig. 2A,B).