‘Underconnectivity’ is considered one of the best-supported theories for the neural basis of autism. But many questions remain unanswered, says Jon Brock.

Researchers should be cautious about interpreting the results of studies that rely on diffusion tensor imaging, says Carlo Pierpaoli.

To better understand how local connectivity is altered in autism, we first need to define what it means, says Tal Kenet.

A number of studies have found no connectivity differences between people with autism and controls, but few have been published so far, says Dan Kennedy.

Autism may result from reduced anatomical connectivity and functional connectivity between the frontal cortex and more posterior areas of the brain, say Marcel Adam Just and Timothy Keller.

Using a sensitive new imaging molecule, researchers can watch neurons in the larval zebrafish brain spring into action when the fish sees a potential meal, according to a study published 29 January in Current Biology.

A new map highlighting brain circuits finds that regions involved in synthesizing information tend to vary more among people than those that govern sensory and motor functions.

Connections between neighboring groups of brain cells are weaker in individuals with autism than in controls, according to a report published 14 January in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Bumetanide, a drug that’s long been used to treat high blood pressure, modestly improves social behaviors in children with mild forms of autism, according to the results of a small trial published in December in Translational Psychiatry.

Researchers have divided the rat brain into 26 structures that are present from birth to adulthood and that can be seen using brain imaging, according to a study published 15 February in Neuroimage.