Individuals with a duplication of a chromosomal region associated with autism and intellectual disability are at higher risk for low birth weight, restricted eating leading to extreme thinness, and smaller-than-average head size.

Healthy parents of children with autism have an atypical brain response to sound frequency changes that mimics the response of individuals with the disorder.

Researchers can use the Manchester Inventory for Playground Observation, a questionnaire that rates children’s interactions with their peers, to reliably measure social skills in children with autism.

Girls who score high on a test that assesses symptoms of eating disorders have many features of autism.

Harmful spontaneous mutations may account for up to half the cases of non-inherited schizophrenia.

Zebrafish share genes and pathways with humans, making them a useful tool to identify the genes that malfunction in autism, says expert Hazel Sive.

Women scientists did much of the important early work in the field of autism, but they still struggle with lower salaries, more teaching responsibilities in their institutions and fewer opportunities to head up large, multi-center collaborations.

College students prefer the laughter of children with autism to that of typical children. This suggests that laughter may help children with the disorder connect with others.

BTBR mice, which are less social than the typical B6 mice, have an elevated immune response in their brains and blood compared with those mice, according to a study published 20 July in PLoS ONE. Hybrids of BTBR and B6 mice have intermediate levels of immune molecules.

A protein linked to language development, FOXP2, regulates the autism candidate gene MET, according to a study published 10 August in the Journal of Neuroscience.