WEEK OF
February 8th
Research roundup
- Autistic children can accurately fill out self-report questionnaires, a topic Spectrum has covered in depth, although those who have attention difficulties may provide less valid answers. Autism
- Dendritic spines, a key feature of neuronal connections, appear to be altered in a number of mouse models of autism. The FEBS Journal
- People with celiac disease have an increased likelihood of having autism and other conditions, such as anxiety, depression or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
- Highlighting key words while reading to preliterate autistic children may boost communication skills, whether the words are accompanied by images or not. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
- Women with a fragile X premutation may have heightened anxiety and autism traits. British Journal of Psychiatry
- Mice that model Angelman syndrome have unusually few sleep spindles — neural activity bursts seen during non-REM sleep and thought to be related to memory consolidation. Molecular Autism
- Researchers can readily induce febrile seizures in rat pups lacking the UBE3A gene, modeling a trait seen in people with Angelman syndrome. eNeuro
- Deletion or duplication of the 1q21 chromosomal region, associated with intellectual disability, autism and schizophrenia, appears to also be linked to anxiety and mood disorders. Translational Psychiatry
- Review articles in the 3 February issue of the Journal of Neuroscience tee up some of the symposia scheduled for the Society for Neuroscience meeting in November, according to the journal’s editor-in-chief. Twitter
Science and society
- Universities should invest more resources to support graduate students’ mental health, which has worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. Nature
- A new podcast, “The Black Spectrum,” presents individual anonymous stories from neurodiverse Black and other people of color in the United Kingdom. The Black Spectrum
- A phase 2 trial of suramin in children improved scores on several autism scales and checklists, according to PaxMedica, the company running the trial. Medscape
- Anti-Asian racism has become more common during the coronavirus pandemic, leaving many Asian-American researchers feeling unsafe. Scientific American
- Many researchers who work with laboratory animals develop allergies to them. Undark
Job moves
- Tuuli Lappalainen, a geneticist at the New York Genome Center, has announced her upcoming move to the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Twitter
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