Full siblings are twice as likely as half siblings to share a diagnosis of autism, according to a short report published 28 February in Molecular Psychiatry. The results suggest that genetic factors play an important role in the risk of developing autism, the researchers say.
Molecules generated by an immune reaction in pregnant rats affect the brains of their offspring, leading to changes in gene expression, according to a study published 30 January in Brain, Behavior and Immunity.
The odds of having a child with autism begin to rise at age 35 for both men and women, but that risk does not increase further when both parents are over 35, according to a large study published in the March issue of Annals of Epidemiology.
Scientists worry that funding cuts to the National Children’s Study, an ambitious effort to track 100,000 children in the United States from before birth through age 21, may harm recruitment efforts.
Immigrating to another country during pregnancy appears to boost the risk of having a child who has low-functioning autism, according to a comprehensive, population-based study in Sweden. The research was published online 23 February in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
A commonly used flame retardant may lead to deficits in sociability, learning and memory in healthy female mice and those that model Rett syndrome, according to a study published 15 February in Human Molecular Genetics. The effects are different in Rett syndrome models compared with healthy mice, suggesting gene-environment interactions.
The likelihood of being diagnosed with autism has increased for children born each year since 1992, especially for individuals at the higher-functioning end of the autism spectrum, reports a study published 7 December in The International Journal of Epidemiology.
A new study claims that low folate levels contribute to autism and offers a tenuous explanation for the low levels.
A new study examining trends in autism research over the past 40 years found that the largest areas of growth have been in immune function, oxidative stress, toxin exposure, genetics and neuroimaging, while research on theory of mind and neuropathology has slowed.
Research on the immune system’s link to autism and other psychiatric disorders is rich and varied — from massive epidemiological studies of twins and pregnant women, to the screening of immune molecules in amniotic fluid and postmortem studies of brain inflammation. In his new book, Paul Patterson lays out this complicated work clearly and concisely, with little editorializing.