Spectrum: Autism Research News

Misplaced pieces of RNA bind and disable the gene responsible for fragile X syndrome, leading to the disorder, according to a study published 28 February in Science.

Children of women who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are at increased risk for autism and attention deficit, according to a study published 21 January in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. This suggests the two diseases have common risk factors.

Spontaneous and rare mutations, particularly in genes related to networks that regulate neuronal connections, contribute a small but significant proportion of the risk for schizophrenia, report two large studies published online 22 January in Nature.

Carrying a duplication of the 22q11.2 chromosomal region may protect against schizophrenia, suggests a study published 12 November in Molecular Psychiatry. This is the first evidence of a genetic region that lowers the risk of a disorder rather than increases it.

Mice with a duplication of SHANK3, a gene with strong links to autism, are hyperactive and manic, reports a study published 7 November in Nature.
 

A large, multisite dataset of brain scans identifies autism with 60 percent accuracy, much lower than the numbers cited by single-site studies. The study, published 25 September in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, highlights the vast differences in equipment, quality and methods across sites.

When people with autism consider scenarios that require them to infer others’ thoughts and beliefs, scans show no difference between their brain activation and that of controls, according to a study published 20 September in PLoS One.

A newly discovered spontaneous mutation, described 27 August in Molecular Psychiatry, links autism to changes in the regulation of the chemical messenger dopamine.

Girls with autism tend to have smaller heads and bodies than their typically developing peers, whereas boys with the disorder tend to have average-sized heads and slightly larger bodies, report two studies published in July.

Genes near the chromosomal region implicated in Williams syndrome are involved in epilepsy and autism-like behaviors, according to a study published 12 June in the European Journal of Human Genetics.