Older women are much more likely to have a child with autism than are older men, according to a controversial report published in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

A new molecular screen allows researchers to determine for the first time the precise amounts of FMRP protein, whose absence in the brain causes fragile X syndrome.

Scientists have linked a person’s social ability with the strength of a specific connection between two areas deep within the brain.

Many autism researchers began studying the disorder after a loved one’s diagnosis, but some struggle with the decision to enroll their children in studies.

A glitch in visual processing may explain why people with autism struggle to gauge emotions from the body language of others, according to a study published in the journal Neuropsychologia.
 
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A team of British researchers has garnered some of the first genetic evidence supporting their theory that sex hormones play a role in the development of autism.

Children with autism are no more likely than healthy children to have some of the gastrointestinal symptoms — such as diarrhea, acid reflux and abdominal discomfort — previously tied to the disorder, according to one of the first long-term investigations of the supposed link.

Genetic studies to date have identified variations linked to autism in 21 of the 23 human chromosomes. Now, using a variety of new, high-resolution techniques, scientists are mining one of these chromosomes — the X — for a more comprehensive set of genetic anomalies associated with the disorder.

Scientists have unveiled the complete structure of an interwoven complex of two types of brain proteins necessary for forming and maintaining connections between neurons.

Studying the relatively well-defined genetics of Williams syndrome may help unravel the poorly understood genetic and neurobiological roots of autism, researchers say.