Benefits of diets for autism features remain unproven, variants of the same DNA region make brains big or small, and STAT announces a new CRISPR tracker.

Boys with autism have smaller heads, are shorter and weigh less at birth than typical children do — but all that changes by age 3.

The amygdala, a brain region that governs emotions, may be enlarged and overly connected in children with autism, but it shrinks as the children grow up.

Neurons derived from people with mutations linked to autism display diverse abnormalities that may help explain the origins of these individuals’ features.

Neurons derived from people with a syndromic form of autism look and behave differently than do those from people with classic autism.

Children with mutations in a gene called DYRK1A, a leading autism candidate, have a distinct set of features, including intellectual disability, speech delay, motor problems and a small head.

A cannabis gel may ease features of fragile X syndrome, omega fatty acids show promise for autism in two trials, and oxytocin reinforces social behaviors through the brain’s reward pathway.

Eric Courchesne is known for his findings on brain size in autism. But the roots of his long career trace back to his own childhood disability.

The evidence linking autism and maternal infections grows, special neuron recipes are in development, a CRISPR pioneer envisions unicorns, and 23andMe delivers empathy data.