Spectrum: Autism Research News

Here is a roundup of news and research for the week of 6 September.

Altered electrical activity in the neurons of mice with a mutated copy of SCN2A may explain the animals’ autism-like social behaviors.

Children born to mothers who take antipsychotic drugs during pregnancy are not more likely to have autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or to be born preterm or underweight.

Here is a roundup of news and research for the week of 2 August

The finding that MDMA and an experimental serotonin agonist increase sociability across six different model mice suggests that disparate autism-linked mutations converge on the same underlying pathways.

Here is a roundup of news and research for the week of 26 July.

Neurons in mice with an autism-linked mutation sprout extraneous protrusions, an overgrowth accompanied by above-average motor learning. Inhibiting a cell signaling pathway reverses the effect.

Here is a roundup of news and research for the week of 12 July.

A new method to track autism prevalence in 11 U.S. states is twice as fast as the old approach — and yields similar results.

Mice missing the autism-linked gene SHANK3 use more neurons to engage in social behavior than control mice do, reflecting a more disorganized, less efficient brain signaling network.