Sleep problems may contribute to or derive from autism traits — or both. After decades of work, researchers are beginning to uncover the biological connections between the two conditions, revealing new paths to potential treatments.

The investigational drug arbaclofen makes autistic people’s brains respond to a visual task more like non-autistic people’s brains do.

Shafali Jeste has spent the bulk of her scientific career searching for biological markers of autism. Her goal: to improve lives through early diagnosis and speedy testing of therapies.

Scientists should heed these differences when considering resting-state brain activity as a biomarker for autism, the researchers say.

Preliminary results suggested the treatment is no better than placebo at reducing the severity of core autism traits.

The stubborn lack of treatments for fragile X syndrome — a leading cause of inherited intellectual disability and autism — is spurring researchers to revise clinical trial techniques and revisit old drug candidates.

Brain responses to visual stimuli are smaller and weaker in children with Phelan-McDermid syndrome, an autism-linked genetic condition, than in non-autistic children.

Integrating genetic analyses into studies of babies’ brain development could help us understand how autism-related genes contribute to autism traits.

In this edition of Null and Noteworthy, researchers open the case on acetaminophen and close it on oxytocin.

A delayed brain response to viewing faces may predict lags in social-skill development in autistic people.