Spectrum: Autism Research News

Researchers requested the retraction of their study linking low vitamin A levels to sleep troubles in autistic children after discovering “fundamental errors” in their data.

Use of the term ‘profound autism’ is among the recommendations made by a panel of autism researchers, clinicians, autistic adults and parents of autistic people.

Genes that appear to play a role in some birds’ ability to learn songs are frequently mutated in autistic people.

In this edition of Null and Noteworthy, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee grapples with “groundbreaking” research and two reviews of interventions come to conflicting conclusions.

Rare variants that alter the expression of genes in the brain contribute to autism in people who also have a rare autism-linked mutation, according to a new study.

People with autism have more mutations than others do in both mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA that affects mitochondrial function.

Clues that problems with mitochondria contribute to autism have been accumulating for decades. In the past five years, a mutant mouse and a flurry of findings have energized the field.

A MECP2 gene therapy for Rett syndrome eases repetitive behaviors, anxiety and hyperactivity in a mouse model of Pitt-Hopkins syndrome.

These short reports from Spectrum journalists highlight some of the autism-related findings that caught our attention at the meeting this past week.

Treatments that counteract the effects of an SCN2A mutation in mice increase the animals’ sociability in adulthood, according to a new unpublished study.