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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Tag: autism

May 2011

Seeking a cure

by  /  17 May 2011

Parents of children with autism choose treatment options based on what they believe caused the disorder, according to a French study. More education about autism could help them make better choices.

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Cognition and behavior: Training teaches autism brains to see faces

by  /  17 May 2011

Adults with autism get better at recognizing faces after they are trained to observe faces as a whole, instead of focusing on individual features, according to a study published 12 April in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

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Despite reasoning skills, Asperger boys struggle to focus

by  /  16 May 2011

Teenage boys with Asperger syndrome with higher-than-average scores on tests of abstract reasoning fare worse than controls on short-term memory and ability to filter out distractions.

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Language gene mouse model could help test autism drugs

by  /  16 May 2011

Mice lacking CNTNAP2, a gene linked to autism and language impairment, show behaviors and brain abnormalities that reflect those seen in people with disorder, according to new findings presented Thursday at the International Meeting for Autism Research in San Diego.

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Brain overgrowth may drive early symptoms of autism

by  /  16 May 2011

Long bundles of neurons that connect key regions in the brain develop abnormally in the first year of life in children with autism, according to new findings presented Friday at the International Meeting for Autism Research in San Diego.

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Family sequencing study boosts two-hit model of autism

by  /  15 May 2011

A new analysis of children with autism and their unaffected parents provides the best evidence to date that mutations in multiple genes may work together to cause autism and related disorders.

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Budget cuts hit autism research

by  /  13 May 2011

Cuts to the National Institutes of Health budget affect both investigators who have existing grants — which will receive one percent less than in 2010 — and those applying for funding.

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Sibling empathy

by  /  13 May 2011

Children with autism who have older siblings score lower on tests that assess their understanding of the thoughts, feelings and intentions of others, compared with those who don’t have older siblings.

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Genetics: Metabolism gene trio linked to autism

by  /  13 May 2011

Variants of three genes involved in a metabolic pathway together raise the risk of autism, according to a study published 5 March in the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

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Scientists probe puzzling overlap of epilepsy and autism

by  /  12 May 2011

Large studies on the epidemiology and genetics of epilepsy and autism have uncovered commonalities between the two disorders. But scientists are only beginning to untangle the biological roots of the overlap.

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