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Spectrum: Autism Research News

WEEK OF
October 14th

Research roundup

  • Autism prevalence across Norway varies, probably because of underdiagnosis in some counties. Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association
  • Children who experience febrile seizures before age 5 have elevated odds of receiving epilepsy and psychiatric diagnoses when they’re older. JAMA Pediatrics
  • The brain’s capacity to adapt to change underpins much of the individual variability seen in neuroscience research. Neuron
  • Genetic researchers need to include more racial and ethnic diversity in databases. Cell
  • Scientists have fully sequenced more than 300 genomes to increase the diversity of the human reference genome. American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting
  • Study authors and peer reviewers should beware of 10 common statistical mistakes. eLife
  • Family members reported less satisfaction than healthcare providers on a survey about diagnostic and therapeutic services for autistic children in Europe. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
  • Regions of the brain that go haywire during a seizure respond normally to stimuli at other times. Science Translational Medicine

Science and society

  • A Philadelphia jury determined that the drug maker Johnson & Johnson should pay $8 billion to a man for side effects from Risperdal, a drug often used to treat irritability in people with autism. The Wall Street Journal
  • Only 35 percent of pregnant women in the United States get vaccinated against pertussis and influenza. STAT
  • Experimental drugs customized for individuals are ethically fraught because no one knows the risk-benefit profile. Science
  • Social-media posts promote using blue Halloween buckets for autistic trick-or-treaters, but the practice is neither official nor widespread. WKYC
  • An autistic mother intertwines her own experience with research in an essay on pregnancy, motherhood and late diagnoses in women. The New York Times
  • Women are underrepresented as both applicants and winners of the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s “high-risk, high-reward” grants. Science
  • Common drug tests do not differentiate between THC from marijuana and non-THC-containing cannabidiol. The New York Times
  • Temple Grandin describes how workplaces can benefit from hiring autistic workers. Reuters
  • Consumer goods company Proctor & Gamble has made good on its initiative to hire more autistic workers: It now has four autistic managers. Cincinnati Business Courier

Autism and the arts

  • Autistic artist Karissa Narukami, who has topographic memory, has been offered a scholarship to a Vancouver, Canada, art school. ABS-CBN News
  • A new medical facility in Las Vegas, Nevada, called Aurtism plans to provide art therapy to autistic people. Fox5
  • Autistic artist Samantha Kaspar will have silk paintings of flora and fauna native to the Philippines on display at a Manila gallery. Philippine Daily Inquirer

Publishing

  • The preprint server BioRxiv is testing a new practice of public peer review. Science

TAGS:   autism