Spectrum: Autism Research News

Terms such as ‘low-functioning’ often used to describe people with autism, are misleading and stigmatizing. Tracking people’s daily lives over time may offer a clearer picture of life with the condition.

A new method allows scientists to chemically coax immune cells in blood into becoming mature neurons.

Individuals who have autism or another psychiatric condition tend to pair up with others who share their diagnosis.

Certain regions of the brain’s bumpy shell become unusually thick and convoluted over time in children with autism.

A fluke finding hints that the growth of blood vessels in the brain runs amok in people with autism.

Children with autism who have trouble learning to sit up, crawl or walk also tend to have difficulty learning to speak and understand words.

Monkeys with multiple copies of a gene called MeCP2 show behaviors reminiscent of autism, but some experts question the model’s value.

Having polycystic ovary syndrome raises the risk of having a child with autism by nearly 60 percent.

A new computer program allows researchers to follow the formation and movement of all neurons in a developing worm.

The first effort to sequence genes tied to autism in postmortem brain tissue reveals a range of harmful mutations in people with the condition.