People with mutations in CHD8, a top autism gene, tend to be tall and have large heads.

Blocking one form of an enzyme implicated in autism eases unusual behaviors and seizures in mice missing a top autism gene.

Autistic people who carry mutations in a gene called PTEN have distinct behavioral and motor problems.

A molecule made by mitochondria, the energy factories of cells, might help doctors forecast the impact of mutations in a top autism gene.

A cellular pathway that helps neurons grow and move during fetal development may drive the changes in head size in some autistic people.

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.