Spectrum
Autism, intellectual delay could be result of spontaneous mutations
Genetic variants across the genome contribute to about 8 percent of the risk for certain developmental conditions — much more ...
Autism more closely linked an inability to ‘read’ other people than inflexible thinking and lack of self-control
For more than 30 years, scientists have debated which of two cognitive abilities, theory of mind and executive function, is ...
Looking for a connection between autism and PTSD
Having autism can sometimes mean enduring a litany of traumatic events, starting from a young age. And for many, those ...
Depression ‘three times as common’ among adults with autism
Depression is more than three times as common among adults with autism as it is in the general population, according ...
Should you disclose your autism diagnosis at work?
One central question those of us with jobs face is: Do I disclose my autism diagnosis to my boss and ...
Viewpoint: Federal marijuana regulations defy ‘common sense’, hindering autism and epilepsy research
A few years ago, I began to see children in my practice who seemingly responded to marijuana-derived extracts. And as ...
Are we close to a simple blood test for autism?
A new study suggests that its results could lead to a simple test for some children with autism, but statisticians ...
Pregnancy and depression: Do antidepressants increase risk of autism?
Among the many things a woman is supposed to avoid when pregnant are antidepressants, particularly a subtype of the drugs ...
Diagnosing autism: Proposed revision of global diagnostic manual raises concerns
The proposed new version of the global manual for diagnosing medical conditions gets many things right about autism — but ...
Pregnancy complications linked to higher risk of autism
High blood pressure or abnormal bleeding during pregnancy, as well as complications such as cesarean delivery or preterm birth, may ...
Approval of marijuana treatment for epilepsy could be boost for autism research
The United States has approved, for the first time, a compound derived from marijuana to treat certain types of epilepsy ...
Treating autism with serotonin
Boosting levels of the chemical messenger serotonin makes mice that model autism more social, according to a study published [August ...
Why identifying suicide risk among people with autism is a challenge
Studies over the past few years hint that suicidal ideation is more common in people with autism than in the ...
Searching for signs of autism in early infant behavior
Fearfulness and shyness in babies and toddlers predict features of autism at age 7, according to a new study. But ...
Differences in brain reward system may explain why autistic people are less interested in socialization
The brain’s system for sensing pleasure and reward shows unusual activation patterns in people with autism, according to an analysis ...
Autism diagnosis, treatment often complicated by accompanying conditions
More than half of people on the [autism] spectrum have four or more other conditions. The types of co-occurring conditions ...
Increased autism risk linked to maternal high blood pressure and diabetes
Children born to women who had diabetes or high blood pressure while pregnant are at an increased risk of autism, ...
Using brain ‘fingerprints’ to study and refine autism treatment
[T]he National Institutes of Health has been supporting research into the ‘human connectome’— the collection of information pathways in the ...
Biosecurity dilemma: Should mega synthetic biology company Ginkgo Bioworks be trusted to police its own industry?
Try as a nefarious actor might, it would be near impossible to order the ingredients for making a deadly virus ...
Viewpoint: Why we need better tools to identify depression in autistic people
Depression is more common among autistic people than it is among the general population, based on both clinical experience and ...
Video games as treatment for autism: Do gains translate to real life?
Over the past year, several small pilot studies have produced promising results for games designed to help children with autism, ...
Why do young adults with autism have more health problems?
Young people with autism have more psychiatric and medical conditions than do their typical peers or those with attention deficit ...
Treating brain damage and disorders with ‘wonder material’ graphene
While graphene has been tapped to deliver on everything from electronics to optoelectronics, it’s a bit harder to picture how ...
How our understanding of the behavioral characteristics of autism has evolved
You can draw a straight line from the initial descriptions of many conditions – claustrophobia, for example, or vertigo – ...
Common autism syndrome linked to medical issues in ‘gut, eyes, heart and brain’
Mutations in a gene called ADNP result in a distinct syndrome that includes autism, intellectual disability and problems with the gut, eyes, ...
Paternal connection: Some autism-linked mutations may come from unaffected fathers
Some children with autism carry rare mutations in DNA segments that flank genes and control their expression—and they tend to ...
Autism treatment could be found through cancer drug
A low dose of a drug used to treat lymphoma may ease social problems in some forms of autism, a ...
Viewpoint: Autism research needs a better mouse
The autism risk genes discovered to date are especially amenable to study in mouse models. Mice have analogous versions of ...