Stimulating the vagus nerve may normalize the brain response to sound in a rat model of Rett syndrome. It may also improve rats’ behavioral response to certain speech sounds.

An autonomous robotic ‘rat’ may offer novel insights into the social responses of its warm-blooded counterparts.

Balls of human neurons transplanted into a rat brain receive blood supply and connect with neural circuits.

Fever in pregnant rats around the time of delivery disrupts their pups’ communication and social behavior.

Rats with a mutation in CACNA1C, a gene linked to autism, make fewer happy squeaks while playing than controls do, and ignore other rats’ requests to play.

Male rats missing an autism candidate gene called SHANK3 spend less time sniffing, nuzzling and chasing their peers than controls do.

Researchers have engineered two new rats with mutations in a family of genes that function at neuronal junctions, they reported today at the 2014 International Meeting for Autism Research in Atlanta.

Injecting stem cells into young rats makes them more social and flexible when learning tasks than before the treatment.

A molecular Swiss army knife for DNA is hewing a path to clarify the subtle effects of thousands of autism-linked mutations.

The combination of prenatal stress and a preterm labor drug may elicit seizures and autism-like behaviors in rat pups.