Like people, monkeys vary widely in their social abilities. Behavioral neuroscientist Karen Parker explains how studying social behavior in monkeys can advance how we understand and treat autism.

Having an enlarged head in early childhood is not a reliable marker of autism, according to two new studies that tracked changes in head and body size in children over time.

People with autism react to stimuli at an uneven pace, sometimes responding rapidly and sometimes after a lag, but only when the group does not exclude the subset of individuals who also have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a meta-analysis published 13 March in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

A rigorous new study confirms that boys with autism tend to score higher on tests of spatial and analytical abilities than on those for verbal skills. But the gap decreases by the time they reach 10 years of age.

Rodent models that recapitulate the core features of autism often have additional traits, leading us to ask whether these traits are integral to autism, says Elisa Hill-Yardin.

A new analysis challenges the long-reported correlation between autism and abnormally large head circumference, begging the question: Should head size matter?

Two new studies raise questions about one of the most frequently reported biological signatures of autism: a larger-than-normal head.

Children with autism and their unaffected twins have heads that are significantly larger than average, according to a study published 16 January in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Families of individuals with autism may share their abnormal patterns of brain activation, according to a study published 3 December in Molecular Autism.

Rats lacking FMR1, the gene mutated in people with fragile X syndrome, do not learn to discriminate between human speech sounds like control rats do, according to research presented Monday evening at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.