Girls and boys born with an extra X chromosome both tend to have difficulties understanding the minds of others, but for different reasons than children with autism do, according to a study published 22 March in Genes, Brain and Behavior.
Mirror neurons, which fire when a person performs or observes an action, function just as well in young children with autism as they do in their typically developing peers. The finding, reported 10 February in Autism Research, boosts evidence against a popular theory of autism.
People with autism show diminished language activity in the left halves of their brains but otherwise show typical specialization between hemispheres, according to a study published 6 February in Molecular Autism.
Oxytocin, the infamous ‘love hormone,’ may attune the brains of people with autism to respond to social information such as facial expressions, researchers reported 2 December in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study boosts oxytocin’s promise for treating the social deficits seen in autism.
Taken at face value, a new translated memoir by a child with severe autism suggests that our official consensus needs a rethink, writes clinical psychologist William Mandy.
Children with autism tend to miss the facial cues that make yawning contagious, suggests a study published 22 July in Autism Research and Treatment.
Families of individuals with autism may share their abnormal patterns of brain activation, according to a study published 3 December in Molecular Autism.
After years of making do with drugs developed for other conditions, doctors and scientists are eagerly pursuing drugs that target the social symptoms of autism.
Adults with autism are less specific and less reliable than controls at recognizing emotions from facial expressions, according to a study published 27 September in Neuropsychologia.
Children with autism are less susceptible to an illusion involving sight and touch, according to unpublished research presented Monday at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.