A new technique allows researchers to watch the long-term effects of disease on the brain, according to a study published in the February Nature Medicine. The approach could help scientists study changes in the brain that result from neurological disorders such as autism.
Teenagers with autism can reliably measure their own quality of life and are more satisfied with it than are their parents, who over-emphasize their children’s social and emotional difficulties, according to a study published in February in The Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.
Children with autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are both more motivated by money than by praise, according to a study published in January in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
Men with fragile X syndrome have larger brains overall than controls do, but less matter in regions involved in language and social interaction.
One of the first large-scale, ongoing studies documenting the symptoms of Angelman syndrome — a neurological disorder with features similar to autism — is calling into question some of the so-called characteristic symptoms of the syndrome.
A new intervention that teaches toddlers skills in a real-world environment — a playgroup rather than a one-on-one interaction with a researcher, for instance — more than doubles their ability to imitate others, according to a January study in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
A rare childhood speech disorder related to social anxiety is associated with a gene linked to autism, according to a study published in December in Biological Psychiatry. The results suggest that the two disorders share a common mechanism.
Researchers have identified a rare genetic variant linked to autism in DLX1, a gene that regulates the growth of neurons, they reported in December in the American Journal of Medical Genetics.
Children with autism do not use efficient, systematic methods to search for an object, according to a study published in January in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Children with autism understand fewer words than their verbal ability would suggest, according to a study published in December in the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders.