Evidence for the benefit of behavioral treatments for autism is modest at best, according to a systematic review published 1 November in Pediatrics.

Adults with autism are less specific and less reliable than controls at recognizing emotions from facial expressions, according to a study published 27 September in Neuropsychologia.

A new candidate gene for autism, CHD8, may account for up to 0.4 percent of cases of the disorder, according to research published today in Science. CHD8 is one of six genes identified that together may contribute to one percent of autism cases.

Researchers have charted patterns of gene expression in a three-dimensional representation of the human brain. The results, published 20 September in Nature, show that different brain regions have distinct molecular and functional roles.

The loss of a 600-kilobase region on chromosome 16 leads to intellectual disability, obesity, a large head and, sometimes, autism, according to a study published in the October issue of the Journal of Medical Genetics.

A new study shows that long-term treatment with oxytocin, a hormone that typically enhances social bonds, can have unexpected consequences, says Sue Carter, a research scientist at RTI International.

Children with autism have abnormal lung anatomy, according to a study published 28 August in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. The results suggest a potential biomarker of autism, researchers say.

Lessons learned from postmortem studies of schizophrenia are applicable to research on autism, a disorder for which brain tissue has not been as well studied, say Allison Curley and David Lewis.

Early intensive therapy may normalize the brain’s response to faces in young children with autism, according to a study published in the November issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The results are part of a randomized, controlled trial of a treatment called the Early Start Denver Model.

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