Thought until recently to only coordinate motor skills, the cerebellum is involved in diverse cognitive functions such as language and social interaction, and may play a role in autism, says Emanuel DiCicco-Bloom.

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.

In utero exposure to the epilepsy drug valproic acid, which ups the risk of autism, may alter the composition of gut bacteria in rodents, according a study published 11 December in Brain Behavior and Immunity.

The blood pressure drug bumetanide normalizes a deficit in brain activity in two rodent models of autism, according to a study published last week in Science. The study hints at a mechanism underlying the drug’s benefits for people with autism.

Two large Scandinavian studies confirm the long-standing theory that older men have a higher risk of fathering children with autism, but they disagree on how a mother’s age drives risk of the disorder.

In premature infants, bleeding inside the skull and respiratory distress requiring a certain type of ventilator may each contribute to an increased risk of autism, suggests a large study published in the January issue of The Journal of Pediatrics.

Taking antidepressants while pregnant doesn’t boost the risk of autism in the child, according to the largest study yet to search for a link, published 15 November in Clinical Epidemiology. However, the subgroup analyses that question the connection are based on numbers too small to draw a firm conclusion, experts say. 
 

Studies with the best quality ratings and the largest sample sizes showed no increased risk of autism for children born from assisted reproductive technologies, reports a review published in the December issue of Human Reproduction.

Women who have children who are later diagnosed with autism tend to gain more weight during pregnancy than do mothers of typically developing children, reports a study in the November issue of Pediatrics.