Brain imaging studies of people with autism show that specific areas respond more strongly to song than do those of controls. The opposite is true when listening to speech.

Engineers have debuted several new robots to help children with autism, including a boy that can sense when it’s touched, a female head that expresses a wide range of emotions and a low-cost fuzzy penguin that can track a child’s eye movements.

In Africa, children with autism tend to be diagnosed much later, and are more likely to be nonverbal, than their counterparts in the U.S., according to a new review.

Autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder show genetic and neurobiological overlap, which may provide clues to the origin of both disorders, says Joel Nigg.

Duplication of a region on the X chromosome leads to a genetic disorder characterized by severe autism, according to a study published 25 November in Annals of Neurology.

As babies are learning to talk, they shift their focus from speakers’ eyes to their lips, according to a new study that could inform efforts to find an early predictor of autism.

Clinicians and autism researchers should learn the early signs of autism and take into account an individual’s developmental trajectory, says Tony Charman.

Two new studies support the idea that the core symptoms of autism cluster into two categories — social communication, and repetitive and stereotyped behavior — rather than the traditional triad of deficits in communication, problems with social reciprocity, and rigid thoughts and behaviors.

Researchers have charted the expression of more than 15,000 brain genes across 15 stages of development, spanning from 4 weeks post-conception to more than 60 years of age, they reported 27 October in Nature.

MBD5, one of 20 genes located in the 2q23.1 chromosomal region, may be responsible for the autism-like syndrome caused by deletions in the region, according to a study published 7 October in the American Journal of Human Genetics.