Research roundup

• Genetic tests that calculate a person’s odds of developing a medical condition may be less clinically relevant than experts thought. Annals of Human Genetics
• New guidelines for including autistic adults in research stress the importance of addressing concerns about communication and trust up front. Autism
• Autism traits such as honesty, hyperfocus and attention to detail may be either an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on the context. Autism in Adulthood
• Two years after receiving fecal transplants, 18 autistic children continue to show improvements in gastrointestinal problems and social behaviors. Scientific Reports
• Children with autism show a stronger neural response to happy faces than to angry faces, which may help explain their difficulties in certain social interactions. Biological Psychiatry CNNI
• Taking the time to familiarize children with a type of brain-scanning machine may help reduce their anxiety — and their head movements — while they are inside it. Journal of Visualized Experiments
• Mice that have a genetic deletion associated with schizophrenia display both growth and behavioral deficits. Molecular Psychiatry

Science and society

• “Sesame Street” has revealed new videos, games and other resources linked to their first autistic character, Julia, for national Autism Awareness Month. USA Today
• People with autism do not experience ‘out-of-body’ illusions because they may process signals from their bodies differently than neurotypical individuals. Newsweek
• A United States federal judge fined a large publisher of online scientific journals $50 million for deceptive practices. The New York Times
• Nobel-prize-winning biologist Sydney Brenner, whose research on the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans led to insights into human disease, has died at the age of 92. The Guardian
• Researchers who used CRISPR to unsilence the fragile X gene in a mouse are the top biomedicine innovators in the STAT Madness competition. STAT
• An autism therapy known as the Early Start Denver Model may not provide bigger benefits than other behavioral treatments. Disability Scoop
• Texas Tech University is launching a mobile autism clinic, which will provide training for schools and other organizations as well as support for parents and caregivers of autistic children in underserved communities in West Texas. TribTalk
• New York City’s mayor has mandated measles vaccination for all unvaccinated people in one Brooklyn neighborhood who may have been exposed to the measles virus. STAT
• When researchers inserted a human gene into eight rhesus monkeys, the monkeys performed better on memory tests and their brains took longer to fully develop. The Scientist

Autism and the arts

• Duncan Clay, an autistic artist from Gatesville, Texas, is writing and illustrating a series of four books designed to help preschoolers learn letters, numbers, shapes and colors. KWTX
• An art show organized by the Colours Centre for Learning in Bengaluru aims to raise awareness of autism in India. The Hindu