A new online database called Braineac details how variations in DNA sequence shape gene expression in the human brain.

A brain imaging study of 26 mouse models of autism reveals a broad range of structural abnormalities. The models cluster into groups with similar features, reports a study published 9 September in Molecular Psychiatry.

Proteins that help guide neurons to their correct destination in the brain may be involved in autism, says Christopher Cowan.

Male mice that carry a specific mutation in the autism-linked PTEN gene have enlarged brains and show heightened interest in other mice, according to a study published 7 February in Human Molecular Genetics.

The equivalent of one-tenth of a single pill of the anxiety drug clonazepam alleviates many autism-like behaviors in a mouse model of the disorder, according to a study published 19 March in Neuron.

Prebiotics — nutrients that promote the growth of some beneficial gut bacteria — can influence brain chemistry and behavior. New findings suggest prebiotics as treatments for people with neurological disorders, say Sarkis Mazmanian and Gil Sharon.

Removing the fragile X syndrome gene from two brain regions in mice leads to signaling defects but does not produce behavioral deficits, according to a study published in the February issue of Autism Research.

When exposed to irritating noises or images, children with autism show hypersensitivity in brain regions that process sensory information and emotions, according to a study published in November in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Studies at the level of neural circuits are needed to better understand the importance of both increased and decreased connectivity between different regions in the autism brain, say John Rubenstein and Vikaas Sohal.

By mapping the brains of not 1 but 27 mouse models of autism, researchers are making sense of the widely divergent structural changes seen in autism brains, they reported Wednesday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.