Paul H. Patterson, a transformative figure in autism research, died on 25 June. His groundbreaking discoveries advanced novel paradigms in neuroscience and immunology, and introduced concepts that will continue to be developed by researchers worldwide.
Having one child with autism raises the odds of having a second child with the disorder 20-fold, according to one of the largest epidemiological studies so far to address the inheritance of autism risk.
A large study of autism in Swedish families suggests that about half of the risk for autism comes from genetics and the other half from environmental factors, researchers reported 7 May in The Journal of the American Medical Association. However, the mathematical model the study used may not be appropriate for evaluating autism risk, experts say.
The risk of certain autism spectrum disorders is highest in firstborn children and declines in each additional sibling born to the same mother, reports a large Finnish study published 28 January in Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology.
Autism researchers have high hopes for a new project called the First 1,000 Days of Life, which aims to follow 5,000 women and their babies from pregnancy through two years after birth.
A strain of bacteria that lives in some people’s guts alleviates obsessive behaviors, anxiety and other symptoms in mice that model autism, researchers report today in Cell. The finding supports the intriguing link between the gut, brain and behavior.
A mother’s exposure to infection can exacerbate the effects of a genetic mutation and contribute to autism or schizophrenia in her pups, suggests an unpublished mouse study presented Wednesday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.
Guinea pigs have advantages over other rodent species commonly used to model disorders such as autism, according to preliminary research published Tuesday at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.
Triggering immune defenses in pregnant monkeys can lead to repetitive behaviors and social problems in their babies, according to a study published 4 September in Biological Psychiatry.
Emerging evidence indicates that microglia, the brain’s immune cells, are altered in some individuals with autism, raising questions about their role in brain development, says Beth Stevens.