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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Tag: intellectual disability

September 2011

Genetics: Autism genes linked to intellectual disability

by  /  7 September 2011

Two autism-associated genes that function at the synapse, the junction between neurons, are associated with severe intellectual disability, according to a study published 9 August in BMC Medical Genetics.

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Out of Africa

by  /  6 September 2011

The handful of studies of autism in Africa suggest that only the most severely affected children are seen in clinics.

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Chromosome 16 duplication raises risk of extreme thinness

by  /  1 September 2011

Individuals with a duplication of a chromosomal region associated with autism and intellectual disability are at higher risk for low birth weight, restricted eating leading to extreme thinness, and smaller-than-average head size.

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August 2011

New genetic map of developmental disability

by  /  24 August 2011

By comparing the DNA of thousands of children who have developmental disabilities to that of controls, researchers have identified numerous mutations likely to contribute to disease.

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Cognition and behavior: Autism linked to focused attention

by  /  24 August 2011

Individuals with autism struggle to switch their attention between sounds and pictures, and are less likely than controls to be distracted by a face, according to two studies published this summer.

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Fair representation for the fairer sex in autism research

by  /  16 August 2011

Including more females in autism research studies will aid the search for genetic and environmental susceptibility factors for the disorder, says genetic psychiatrist Lauren Weiss.

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Autism studies that neglect subgroups may skew results

by  /  11 August 2011

Autism studies tend to focus on one part of the spectrum, often excluding those who also have other conditions such as anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder or intellectual disability. The result, some experts say, is piecemeal findings that don’t fit together to generate a whole picture.

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Kissing cousins

by  /  5 August 2011

Marriages between first cousins are frowned upon in the U.S. and western Europe, but they are common throughout much of the world. A new study shows that these consanguineous unions can help researchers uncover genetic risk factors for neurodevelopmental diseases.

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X-linked variants may up autism, schizophrenia risk

by  /  3 August 2011

The first study to sequence more than 100 genes on the X chromosome in people with autism or schizophrenia has turned up some promising leads.

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Cognition and behavior: Babies with fragile X show prolonged gaze

by  /  2 August 2011

Infants with fragile X syndrome spend more time looking at a toy before switching their attention elsewhere than do healthy controls, according to a study published 1 July in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

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