The brains of individuals with autism express lower levels of proteins that direct neuronal growth compared with those of controls.

Mice lacking a gene that regulates an important signaling pathway in the central nervous system have severe autism-like social deficits, including little interest in nurturing their offspring and problems with learning and memory.

A new atlas of gene expression patterns in the adult mouse brain shows how thousands of genes are turned on in specific layers of the cortex.

The brains of boys with autism have a lower-than-normal rate of water diffusion across the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus — a bundle of neurons that connects all four major lobes of the brain, according to a new study.

A new review suggests that sleep problems in neurodevelopmental disorders don’t just reflect underlying weaknesses in neural circuitry; they actively intensify these deficits.

A protein linked to language development, FOXP2, regulates the autism candidate gene MET, according to a study published 10 August in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Many toddlers with autism have weak connections between the two sides of the brain, according to the first-ever analysis of brain connections in young children with the disorder, published 23 June in Neuron.

The rapid brain growth seen in children with autism occurs early in life, before children reach 2 years of age, according to a study published in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

Mice with a mutation in SHANK3, a leading autism candidate gene, show moderate social defects, including less-than-normal interest in other mice. The findings, published 27 May in Cell, suggest that mutations in different sites on the gene can lead to different behaviors. This paper was retracted on 17 January 2013. Associate director of research Alan Packer discusses the implications of the retraction here.

Two networks of genes are abnormally expressed in the brains of people with autism, according to a study published today in Nature.