Spectrum: Autism Research News

Research roundup

• Assessing autistic people in their everyday environments can provide useful information, and yet varying methods make generalizing across studies difficult. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry
• Autistic children are likely to show more motor stereotypies if they are younger in age, are nonverbal, have intellectual disability or have more severe autism traits overall. Autism
• Given the opportunity to control audio settings of a video, autistic people are more likely than non-autistic people to lower volume, excess noise and echo. Frontiers in Psychiatry
• Autism-related data from the Global Burden of Disease study show the condition’s prevalence has risen over the past 30 years in high-income countries, but has fallen in some low-income ones, which may reflect differences in clinical resources. Spectrum’s global autism prevalence map tracks relevant studies around the world. Molecular Psychiatry
• Renal organoids missing either the TSC1 or TSC2 genes reveal changes in gene expression that may lead to kidney disease in people with tuberous sclerosis complex. Cell Reports
• People who carry variants of the RELN gene, linked to autism and bipolar disorder, show a wide variety of behavioral traits and altered brain structures. Brain
• The prevalence of autism in U.S.-residing children and adolescents has risen to 3.14 percent, according to a recent analysis. Spectrum explored the range of reasons for autism’s increasing numbers in a downloadable book. JAMA Pediatrics
• Children and adolescents who seek emergency care for mental or behavioral health issues are often agitated; those with autism, conduct disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have a tendency to be restrained. Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians Open
• A clinic offering coordinated health care and genetic testing for people with neurodevelopmental conditions reports shorter wait times and better follow-up rates than when the two specialties were siloed. Frontiers in Genetics
• Representation of autistic adults across a wide range of media has increased in the past 10 years, but autism is still most commonly portrayed in children. Autism in Adulthood

Science and society

• Big data efforts in China may help identify autistic people who are likely to respond to specific treatments, thereby improving personalized medicine for autism. Spectrum covered a Swiss company pursuing personalized medicine approaches for autism last week. Nature
• North Carolina is piloting a program to support autistic state employees. North Carolina Office of State Human Resources
• Two bioethicists take stock of how overturning Roe might affect prenatal genetic testing and screening in the United States. Spectrum covered the thorny issues involved in prenatal testing for autism 2019. Cell Reports Medicine
• Some researchers working in U.S. states that have banned or severely restricted abortion have declared that they are looking to move to an abortion-friendly state. The Scientist

Cite this article: https://doi.org/10.53053/CRFV4964