An autism-associated gene variant of glyoxalase 1, or GLO1, leads to the buildup of a compound that is toxic to neurons, according to a study published 12 April in Autism Research.
Things are getting better for women in science, but we are still far from a world in which gender is irrelevant.
Two rare, unlikely and inherited mutations in the same gene may together have contributed to a case of autism, according to a study published 23 March in Molecular Psychiatry. The results suggest that the gene, DIAPH3, is a new candidate for autism risk.
Neurons that respond to the same stimuli are grouped into sub-networks that can quickly communicate with each other, according to a study published 10 April in Nature.
At 12 months of age, infant siblings of children with autism have a brain response to unfamiliar faces that is characteristic of typical children at a younger age, according to a study published 26 March in Brain Topography. This developmental delay could be used as an early biomarker for autism.
Diagnosing autism in children is difficult enough, but detecting the disorder in adults is even more complicated.
Frequent seizures up the risk of having both autism and the related disorder tuberous sclerosis, according to a study published 15 March in Neurology.
Identical twins can be genetically different, which could explain why they do not always share disorders such as schizophrenia or autism, according to a study published in March in PLoS One.
A delayed response to unexpected changes in sound frequency is a marker for language impairment and autism, according to a study published in March in Biological Psychiatry.
Small duplications or deletions of DNA regions — called micro-copy number variations — may not lead directly to disease, but could raise the risk of autism when combined with other mutations, according to a study published in March in the American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics.