Spectrum: Autism Research News

Audio and motion-sensor recordings offer a remote window into a baby’s first years and make it easier for families to participate in research.

Autistic children are up to four times as likely as their non-autistic peers to have digestive problems, and several small studies show they may also have atypical microbial communities living in their guts.

Spheres of brain cells derived from people and implanted into mouse brains recruit blood vessels and integrate with mouse neurons.

A trio of drugs eases repetitive behaviors in mice by activating a brain region involved in motor control.

The drug mavoglurant has no effect on a brain circuit involved in social behavior in a mouse model of fragile X syndrome. That may explain its poor performance in people with the condition.

Mouse pups exposed to an immune response in the womb show autism-like behaviors and altered gene expression in brain cells called microglia.

Mutations in the Rett syndrome gene MECP2 have different effects on subtypes of neurons.

Spheres of brain cells derived from a fetal skull have gene expression patterns similar to those in brain tissue from the same fetus.

A wireless miniature microscope lets researchers peer into the brains of mice as they run along a 25-foot track.

Neurons derived from people with a syndromic form of autism look and behave differently than do those from people with classic autism.