Spectrum: Autism Research News

The temporary organ may hold clues about the origins of autism and brain development, Anna Penn says — if only researchers would study it.

In this edition, a strategy to help autistic children adapt their skills to new situations shows no benefit, but an early-life autism biomarker does.

Overexpressing genes involved in the pathway, which regulates protein quality, changes repetitive behaviors in the animals.

The gene, dubbed NHIP, is in a chromosomal region that shows unusually low levels of DNA methylation in placentas from women who gave birth to autistic children.

The neurons, which have low levels of the gene ASH1L, sprout more branches after the treatment.

In this edition of Null and Noteworthy, a large clinical trial goes sideways, while memory and emotions hold up.

The drug suppresses an overactive signaling pathway implicated in tuberous sclerosis complex.

The brain region, which is involved in fear and emotion processing, develops differently in autistic children with anxiety than in those without anxiety or in non-autistic children; its development also depends on the type of anxiety a child experiences.

Some genomic areas that help determine cerebellar size are associated with autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to a new study. But heritable variants across the genome that also influence cerebellar size are not.

In this edition of Null and Noteworthy, researchers replicate encouraging findings on autism and aging and shoot down a host of potential links between pregnancy complications and having a child with autism.