There are hints that transcranial magnetic stimulation, which uses electricity to change how brain cells function, might improve the symptoms of autism. But hopes are running way ahead of the facts.

The brains of young children with autism show abnormally dense connections involving the frontal lobe. The excess wiring may disrupt the development of social and language circuits.

A head-mounted device tracks both blood flow and electrical activity in the brains of moving rats.

Scientists should slow down and return to the basic tenets of research to regain the public’s trust.

Editing the genome has never been easier, and theories about the brain are inextricably tied to technology.

A group of nerves at the base of the brain that govern movement appear to be structurally compromised in people with autism. The lower the integrity of these nerves, the more severe a person’s autism symptoms.

Researchers have for the first time mapped gene expression in the rhesus macaque brain from birth through adulthood. The atlas illuminates the expression patterns of genes likely to be important in autism.

The bundle of nerves that connects the brain’s two hemispheres is abnormally thick in infants who are later diagnosed with autism. The broader the bundle, called the corpus callosum, the more severe a child’s symptoms.

Among babies who go on to receive a diagnosis of autism at age 2, alterations in brain structures forecast the severity of repetitive behaviors. The preliminary results were presented Saturday at the 2015 International Meeting for Autism Research in Salt Lake City, Utah.  
 

Uneven wiring in the brain’s motor circuitry predicts movement difficulties in children with autism, according to unpublished research presented yesterday at the 2015 International Meeting for Autism Research in Salt Lake City, Utah.