In 2003, John Rubenstein and Michael Merzenich first described the theory, now popular in autism, that the disorder reflects an imbalance between excitation and inhibition in the brain. Takao K. Hensch and Parizad M. Bilimoria review the paper and its impact on the field.

Some children classified as having autism outgrow their diagnosis, but it’s not yet clear why this group does better, says Cathy Lord.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation may provide a noninvasive approach to studying how connections in the human brain change in response to new information, and how that process is altered in autism, says Lindsay Oberman.

A growing number of reports of adult-onset symptoms in Phelan-McDermid syndrome underline the need to follow people with the disorder throughout their lives, says Katy Phelan.

Helen McCabe’s analysis of autism interventions in China underscores the need to provide information on evidence-based treatments to parents and teachers.

New Jersey’s autism rates, which are consistently higher than those of other U.S. states, add weight to the possibility of a true increase in autism prevalence, says Walter Zahorodny.

Crowdsourcing allows volunteers to become citizen scientists, archivists and journalists. Ventures such as the Interactive Autism Network can harness their power to advance autism research, say Paul Law and Cheryl Cohen.

Mitochondrial deficits may account for the range of symptoms and neurological deficits seen in autism and explain why it preferentially affects boys, says Douglas Wallace.

New funding will help Seaside Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based company, develop biomarkers to track the success of treatments for autism, says Aileen Healy.

Late this summer, a paper from Yale University researchers led by Jo Handelsman delivered some sobering news: There is still a clear bias against female scientists. The findings confirm the impression of many women in science, at all career levels, who feel undervalued.