Molecular mechanisms: Star-shaped cells abound in autism
Brains from people with autism have more support cells called glia and fewer neurons than do control brains, suggests a study published 10 January in Molecular Autism.
Brains from people with autism have more support cells called glia and fewer neurons than do control brains, suggests a study published 10 January in Molecular Autism.
Results from four studies published in the past year point to a role for the cerebellum in autism-related behaviors.
By creating an atlas of 39 different areas in the mouse cerebellum, researchers have highlighted differences in this region in three mouse models of autism, they reported 22 October in Autism Research.
Infants later diagnosed with autism are slower to learn how to sit and stand and are less likely to spontaneously change positions than their typically developing peers, reports a study published 18 September in Infancy.
By mapping the brains of not 1 but 27 mouse models of autism, researchers are making sense of the widely divergent structural changes seen in autism brains, they reported Wednesday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.
MeCP2, the gene associated with Rett syndrome, has widely variable effects on mouse brains depending on the mutation it carries, according to unpublished results presented Tuesday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.
An eye test that reveals defects in the cerebellum — a brain region that integrates sensory information to fine-tune movement — may help researchers home in on the brain circuits disrupted in autism, according to unpublished findings presented Monday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.
Activating cells in the cerebellum, a brain region usually associated with movement, eliminates seizures in a mouse strain that normally has hundreds of seizures a day, according to results presented Saturday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.
One of the largest genome-wide screens of methyl tags in postmortem brains has found that people with autism have three unique regions of methylation — chemical modifications that affect gene expression. The results were reported 3 September in Molecular Psychiatry.
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.