A new study provides the first functional link between the schizophrenia risk gene DISC1 and two candidate genes for autism. DISC1 significantly alters expression of NRXN1 and NRXN2 at key phases of development, according to a brief report in the June issue of Molecular Psychiatry.
An innovative academic program in New York City public schools is successfully educating children with high-functioning autism alongside their unaffected peers.
Parents see more benefits to a diagnosis of autism than their affected children do — perhaps unsurprising, given young people’s overwhelming desire to fit in with their peers.
Genetic screening of children with autism is critical to designing more effective interventions and treatment, says a pediatrician.
Teenage boys with Asperger syndrome with higher-than-average scores on tests of abstract reasoning fare worse than controls on short-term memory and ability to filter out distractions.
Mice lacking CNTNAP2, a gene linked to autism and language impairment, show behaviors and brain abnormalities that reflect those seen in people with disorder, according to new findings presented Thursday at the International Meeting for Autism Research in San Diego.
Long bundles of neurons that connect key regions in the brain develop abnormally in the first year of life in children with autism, according to new findings presented Friday at the International Meeting for Autism Research in San Diego.
A new analysis of children with autism and their unaffected parents provides the best evidence to date that mutations in multiple genes may work together to cause autism and related disorders.
Cuts to the National Institutes of Health budget affect both investigators who have existing grants — which will receive one percent less than in 2010 — and those applying for funding.