Offspring born to pregnant rats with an activated immune system emit more distress calls when they receive electrical shocks than do controls, according to a study published 9 June in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
Amyloid-beta, the small protein that forms plaques in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, is more prevalent in postmortem brains from individuals with autism than in those from controls, according to a study published 2 May in PLoS One.
Mice that are unable to produce a carbohydrate molecule that regulates cell growth show behaviors that resemble the core deficits of autism, according to a study published 27 March in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The reward center of the brain is less active in children with autism compared with controls in response both to praise and monetary rewards, according to a study published 11 April in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
Adults with autism have regional differences in brain volume in areas that play a role in social behavior and communication compared with controls, according to a large study published in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. The differences correlate with the severity of autism symptoms, the study also shows.
Clinicians and autism researchers should learn the early signs of autism and take into account an individual’s developmental trajectory, says Tony Charman.
Studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie autism is crucial to advancing our understanding of the disorder, says neuroscientist Eric Kandel.
A subset of neurons in the amygdala, a small brain region responsible for processing emotions, recognize whole faces rather than individual features, according to a study published 11 October in Current Biology.
Connections between the amygdala — a deep nub involved in processing emotions — and other parts of the brain are more numerous in children than in adults, according to unpublished research presented at the 2011 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Scientists are analyzing more than 7,000 studies of functional magnetic resonance imaging to refine the role of various regions in the brain, according to unpublished work presented Monday at the 2011 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.