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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Tag: biomarkers

October 2020
four brain areas marked with flags: Cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, cerebellum

Brain structure changes in autism, explained

by  /  15 October 2020

Autistic people have distinct patterns of brain development, which sometimes result in differences in brain structure. Here’s what we know about those differences.

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Parent reads to her child at night in a makeshift text with cozy lights.

Virtual lab visits enable remote assessments of child development

by  /  7 October 2020

A new telehealth test offers researchers a way to detect signs of atypical behavior from afar and could help more families participate in autism studies and clinical trials.

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September 2020
Close-up of adult hand holding preemie baby hand.

Increasing delays in development may signal autism in preterm babies

by  /  28 September 2020

Extremely preterm babies later diagnosed with autism tend to show steep declines in development, a pattern that could flag them for intervention as early as 6 months of age.

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Brain images showing differences in signaling in autistic and normal brains.

Brain signal imbalance tracks with sex and with camouflaging autism traits

by  /  17 September 2020

Autistic men show a greater imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory signaling in the brain than autistic women do, which could explain sex differences in ‘camouflaging.’

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Liquid medicine being poured from bottle onto spoon.

Bumetanide may benefit only a subset of autistic children

by  /  3 September 2020

Contrary to previous results, the blood pressure drug did not uniformly improve autism traits in a new clinical trial.

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August 2020
Two faces interacting socially while data is being recorded, illustration.

Facial expressions between autistic and typical people may be mismatched

by  /  28 August 2020

Conversations between an autistic and a typical person involve less smiling and more mismatched facial expressions than do interactions between two typical people.

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Fat in bloodstream visualized as yellow balls, floating near blood cells, macro view.

Blood lipid levels may be altered in some autistic people

by  /  10 August 2020

About 6.5 percent of autistic people in the United States also have dyslipidemia, a condition characterized by abnormal lipids levels in the blood.

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July 2020
Man working from home office.

INSAR 2020, from home

by  /  31 July 2020

Like so many other events this year, autism’s biggest annual conference — the International Society for Autism Research meeting — was forced to go virtual because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Researcher attaching electrodes to a baby's head during an electroencephalography study in the Sleep Room

Infants’ brain waves may foretell autism traits

by  /  24 July 2020

Babies with telltale patterns of electrical activity in the brain have pronounced autism traits as toddlers.

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group of 4 brain views

Autistic people with rare mutation may have unique brain anatomy

by  /  17 July 2020

Brain structure of autistic people with deletions in the chromosomal region 22q11.2 differs from that of autistic people without the deletions.

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