Spectrum: Autism Research News

The head of the Autism Phenome Project has deepened the pool of study participants and helped overhaul the culture of the MIND Institute.

This edition of Null and Noteworthy highlights results that reveal the difficulty in drawing definitive conclusions from data, including new findings about epidurals that contradict several others and an apparent null result on sex differences that may derive from “circular logic.”

The map, by far the largest one of an entire brain to date, contains 130,000 neurons and 53 million synapses.

Knocking down the gene that codes for the proteins normalizes the vocalizations.

The request is energizing scientists investigating autistic people who largely don’t communicate with spoken words.

The drug clemastine and other compounds that fortify the protective sheath around neurons may prove therapeutic for some genetic neurodevelopmental conditions.

New data from clinical trials of arbaclofen and oxytocin underscore the murkiness of null results. Plus, researchers seek clarity on the neurodevelopmental effects of oxytocin during childbirth.

The new resource aims to aid reproducibility in imaging research.

More than 100 parents who used the drug during pregnancy claim it caused their child’s autism or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, although the science behind the allegations is murky.

The editors intend to start a new nonprofit journal.