Mice with one inactivated copy of CHD8, a top autism gene, show an unusually high degree of synchrony in neural activity between brain regions.

Harmful mutations in a gene called NAA15 may lead to autism, intellectual disability and delayed speech and motor function.

Boys with autism have smaller heads, are shorter and weigh less at birth than typical children do — but all that changes by age 3.

The brains of people with autism show a variety of structural differences from those of controls.

Mutations in the gene PTEN that are tied to autism may be less harmful than those linked to a syndrome characterized by benign tumors.

Female mice may compensate for the loss of a piece of chromosome 16 better than male mice do.

Brain networks in newborns may reflect the degree of inflammation their mothers experienced during pregnancy.

Male monkeys that avoid touching, grooming or playing with others have low brain levels of the hormone vasopressin.

Girls with an autism diagnosis have more severe impairments in social communication than boys with the diagnosis.

Missing one copy of a stretch of chromosome 16 leads to an enlarged brain; an extra copy of the region has the opposite effect.