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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Tag: brain banks

September 2014

New clues connect altered patterns of DNA tags to autism

by  /  16 September 2014

Methyl tags on DNA are distributed differently in postmortem brains from people with autism than in control brains, and mouse pups can inherit altered methylation from their older fathers, report two new studies.

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April 2014

Autism lesion or artifact? Experts discuss new find

by  /  30 April 2014

Disorganized patches found in the brains of children with autism prompt debate about their significance for the disorder. Three experts give their perspectives.

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November 2013

RNA bits vary in social, auditory brain areas in autism

by  /  14 November 2013

People with autism show differences from controls in the levels of microRNAs, small noncoding bits of RNA, in the social and sound-processing parts of the brain. Unpublished results from the postmortem study were presented Wednesday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.

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Brain findings in autism leave researchers scratching heads

by  /  13 November 2013

Three decades of research on anatomical changes in the brains of individuals with autism has yielded few if any consistent patterns. The field needs an overhaul of the methods used, researchers said at a symposium Wednesday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.  

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September 2013

Brain activity of microRNAs gives clues about autism

by  /  19 September 2013

Small regulatory RNA molecules are most active between infancy and early childhood in a region of the brain known for complex thinking and behavior, reports a new study published 6 August in Molecular Psychiatry. The finding, based on an analysis of postmortem brains, may provide insight into what goes wrong in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.

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July 2013

High-resolution model showcases brain anatomy

by  /  4 July 2013

Researchers have sliced a human brain into more than 7,400 slivers, and stained and scanned them to create ‘BigBrain,’ the most detailed three-dimensional map of a human brain to date, they reported 21 June in Science.

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May 2013

Scientists home in on key spot in brain for autism risk

by  /  4 May 2013

By analyzing the expression patterns of nine candidate genes for autism, researchers have identified a population of cells and a select time during fetal development that may be key to the disorder.

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New brain bank set to collect samples for autism research

by  /  2 May 2013

A new initiative aims to collect brain tissue for autism research, adding welcome resources to the struggling Autism Tissue Program, according to an announcement today at the 2013 International Meeting for Autism Research in San Sebastián, Spain.

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October 2012

Postmortem brain analysis points to autism candidate genes

by  /  16 October 2012

An in-depth analysis of tissue from a large number of autism brains eases some of the qualms about their use in research, according to a poster presented Monday at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.

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June 2012

The case for brain donation

by  /  26 June 2012

We can’t get back the tissue lost in the Harvard freezer malfunction, but we can try to create something positive from this tragic event, says Alison Singer.

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