Flooding from Hurricane Sandy has destroyed a major rodent colony at New York University. But most of the strains are also housed elsewhere, so researchers should be able to rebuild their collections.

People with autism don’t look at others’ eyes or mimic their actions in everyday life, but they can do these things when asked to, according a review published 7 September in Brain and Development. 

Rodent and stem cell models remain challenging for developing psychiatric drugs, says Michael Ehlers, chief scientific officer of neuroscience at Pfizer.

Our coverage of the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting ran the gamut from feral monkeys to the language of mice and new treatments for fragile X syndrome.

New standards for animal studies, including an emphasis on replicating results and the publication of negative findings, are vital for research progress, says Jacqueline Crawley.

Rapid progress in gene discovery and an emerging map of the molecular landscape of normal brain development are presenting unprecedented opportunities to unravel the biology of autism spectrum disorders, say Matthew State and Nenad Sestan.

Sharing data and tools is universally efficient, but the study of autism in particular presents challenges that can benefit from an open-science framework, says Randy Buckner.

After nine long years, the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting is returning to New Orleans. And SFARI.org’s reporters are ready to deliver the best advances in autism research that emerge.

Which test a clinician uses to diagnose a child with autism may determine whether that child meets the criteria proposed in the newest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Adapting the hospital environment to suit the needs of children with autism can cut down how long the children spend there and how often they return, suggests a study in the 2012 issue of Autism Research and Treatment.