A new brain imaging system lets researchers eavesdrop on mouse neurons as the animals move around and interact with each other.

A brain circuit that wires lone mice to seek out social contact may offer clues about autism.

Risperidone can ease irritability in people with autism, but has no effect on repetitive behaviors, social impairments or communication deficits, according to a study published 19 November.

Experimental drugs can reverse the effects of some autism-linked mutations in the dopamine transporter, a protein that shuttles the chemical messenger dopamine into neurons. Researchers presented the unpublished findings in five posters yesterday at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Cells modified to carry fluorescent sensors can help researchers detect the levels of various chemical messengers in the brains of living mice.

Light-transmitting cables implanted deep in mouse brains reveal connections between brain regions that control social interactions, according to a study published 19 June in Cell.

A long-awaited report, published today in Nature, confirms that with access to tens of thousands of genomes, researchers can identify common genetic risk factors for a complex neuropsychiatric disorder.

Researchers have linked defects in the dopamine brain circuit to behaviors of a new mouse model of the 16p11.2 deletion. In a study in the 16 May Cell Reports, they suggest that the mutation alters the brain’s regulation of dopamine and may be responsible for behavioral problems, including autism.

Risperidone, the first drug approved for children with autism and the most widely used, improves some children’s behavior but can have severe side effects, suggests an informal analysis of the drug’s use. 

The motor problems seen in Rett syndrome may be the result of deficits in a reward pathway in the striatum, according to a study published 12 November in Brain Structure and Function.