Here at Spectrum, 2022 was a year of deepening engagement — with science, as we returned to in-person conferences and meetings; and with our sources, through increased reporting, regular surveys and social media. That immersion brought us closer to many autism researchers, a community we profiled in our annual book, which was published this week. It also brought us closer to the important conversations happening in the field.

We highlight some of those conversations and “hot topics” from the year in this special report. Other important discussions appear in our overview of the year’s “top tweets.” And our “top quotes” entry eavesdrops on the most interesting dialogues this year between autism researchers and our reporters.

Our rich engagement this past year also bore new fruit for our end-of-year report: A survey of our sources yielded our first-ever “40 under 40” list of rising stars studying autism around the world. And it inspired us to put together a short quiz and calendar of upcoming meetings in 2023. We hope to see you there!

Cite this article: https://doi.org/10.53053/XWYF1768