An atypical response to sensory stimuli, such as smells and sounds, may be a core feature of autism, suggest two studies published in the past few months.

Women who have a milder version of the fragile X mutation, which can lead to the full mutation in their children, have some features of autism, according to a study published 12 June in the American Journal of Medical Genetics.

Infants at high risk for autism have difficulty integrating information from different senses, such as vision and hearing, a new study suggests.

Two studies published over the past month followed individuals with autism at various ages and showed that they gain developmental skills differently than controls do.

Researchers have identified deletions in SHANK1 — the third member of a gene family that is closely linked to autism — in five men with the disorder, they reported 4 May in the American Journal of Human Genetics. This is the first study linking SHANK1 mutations to people with autism.

Two mutations in an autism-associated gene, neurexin-1, may have combined to cause autism in one man, whereas family members with only one of the two mutations have other neurological disorders, according to a study published 15 February in the American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B.

In families that have at least one child with autism, significant motor impairments crop up in most children with the disorder and hardly any of their unaffected siblings, according to a study published 19 October in Autism.

Individuals who have multiple children with autism have more severe social and communication deficits than either controls or those who have only one child with autism.

A new study finds that Dutch children picked up by the police for minor offenses score higher than controls on a questionnaire measuring traits of autism.

Boys who have autism-like social deficits at 2 years of age retain about the same level of social impairment when they reach age 20.