Low levels of a thyroid hormone during pregnancy raise the risk of autism-like symptoms in the child by fourfold, according to a study published 13 August in Annals of Neurology.
People with autism and those with duplications of the 15q11-13 chromosomal region share a distinctive pattern of gene expression in the brain, according to unpublished research presented Friday at the Dup15q Alliance Scientific Meeting in Sacramento, California.
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.
About one in ten women who have a child with autism have immune molecules in their bloodstream that react with proteins in the brain, according to a study published 20 August in Molecular Psychiatry.
Children with autism, even those with low intelligence, can improve their self-control by practicing a Chinese mind-body exercise technique, reports a study published 10 July in PLoS One.
A technique borrowed from geography bolsters the idea that altered wiring in the brain’s gray matter plays a role in autism, according to a report published 22 July in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
An autism-linked variant in the receptor for oxytocin may alter connections in the brain, according to a study published 17 May in Neuroimage.
Researchers have debuted the most comprehensive map to date showing how the suite of methyl tags on the DNA of brain cells changes across the genome over a lifetime. The map, published 4 July in Science, suggests that shifting patterns of methylation may guide key periods of brain development.
Researchers can shut down or trigger compulsive behaviors in mice by using light to target certain brain circuits, according to two studies published 7 June in Science.
The brains of people with autism are structurally different from those of controls, with more folds and a thicker cortex in certain regions, according to two studies published in the past few months.