Differences in brain activity that distinguish children with autism from controls may lessen with age, according to a meta-analysis published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Loss of one copy of 22q11.2 — a chromosomal region linked to schizophrenia and autism — shifts the location of neurons that inhibit brain signals, according to a study published 6 November in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In 2003, John Rubenstein and Michael Merzenich first described the theory, now popular in autism, that the disorder reflects an imbalance between excitation and inhibition in the brain. Takao K. Hensch and Parizad M. Bilimoria review the paper and its impact on the field.
A new map highlighting brain circuits finds that regions involved in synthesizing information tend to vary more among people than those that govern sensory and motor functions.
Children with autism are better than controls at remembering melodies and detecting differences in pitch, according to a study published 13 November in Autism.
Children with a deletion in the 22q11.2 chromosomal region have one of two distinct sets of symptoms, and only one of those is associated with autism, according to a study published 28 August in Research in Developmental Disabilities.
The so-called ‘spiny mouse’ species has a gestational period twice as long as that of typical laboratory mice. This makes them good models for studying the link between prenatal exposure and autism risk, according to a study published 29 August in Brain, Behavior and Immunity.
Studying the well-characterized Williams syndrome could help researchers understand autism and discover new therapeutic targets, says Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg.
Propranolol, a drug used to treat heart disease and anxiety, might improve memory and attention deficits in autism, according to a study published in the May issue of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.
Autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder show genetic and neurobiological overlap, which may provide clues to the origin of both disorders, says Joel Nigg.