Cells derived from the skin of boys and men with autism share a host of unusual characteristics.

A human gene gives mice bigger brains, and people with autism weigh in on that white or blue dress.

Several brain regions in people with autism become enlarged earlier than usual during childhood and shrink too soon during adulthood, finds an eight-year imaging study.

People with autism who have mutations in a gene called PTEN have a distinct profile of cognitive impairments and structural abnormalities in the brain. The profile, published 7 October in Molecular Psychiatry, points to a subtype of autism with these features.

Having an enlarged head in early childhood is not a reliable marker of autism, according to two new studies that tracked changes in head and body size in children over time.

Mice with mutations in the autism-linked gene WDFY3 have enlarged brains reminiscent of those seen in some children with autism, according to a study published 8 September in Nature Communications.

Deletion and duplication of the 16p11.2 chromosomal region have opposite effects on brain size, but produce similar alterations in the brain’s processing of sound. Researchers reported these and other unpublished findings at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego, painting a complex picture of the region’s role in autism.