Spectrum: Autism Research News

A remote Colombian town is home to the world’s largest cluster of people with fragile X syndrome. Scientists are learning from them — and trying to help.

Fragile X syndrome is a leading genetic cause of autism. People who have either condition often share certain traits, such as difficulties in social situations.

Researchers have charted billions of synapses in the mouse brain and sorted them by type.

Depression is more than three times as common among adults with autism as it is in the general population.

Children with autism are more likely to have both sleep problems and constipation than would be expected based on the prevalence of each of those conditions.

A new study suggests that its results could lead to a simple test for autism, but statisticians say the test could not be used to screen for the condition in the general population.

David and Bernardo Sabatini, brothers born just a year and a half year apart, invent their way to answering big questions about autism.

The international manual of conditions now includes a diagnostic code for Angelman syndrome — which may enable scientists to systematically collect information about the syndrome.

Children who have a rare extra copy of one segment on chromosome 15 have better cognitive abilities and daily living skills than those with a duplication that forms an extra chromosome.

Food allergies may be more than twice as common among autistic children as among their typical peers; boys with autism also tend to have skin and respiratory allergies.