The motor problems seen in Rett syndrome may be the result of deficits in a reward pathway in the striatum, according to a study published 12 November in Brain Structure and Function.
Children with autism develop interactive skills late and many lose at least one skill by 3 years of age, says a study published in November.
Children with autism who are older than 13 years and have low intelligence are at the greatest risk of having epilepsy, according to one of the largest epidemiological studies on the issue to date, published 4 July in PLoS One.
The majority of people lacking a functional copy of the SHANK3 gene have both autism and severe intellectual disability, according to a study published 11 June in Molecular Autism.
Studying regression in Rett syndrome may help us understand the phenomenon in autism, as it occurs at the same time in both disorders and includes many of the same features, says Jeffrey Neul.
The onset of Rett syndrome, which is marked by the sudden loss of speech and motor skills, is more gradual than previously believed, according to two studies published in the past few months.
Crowdsourcing allows volunteers to become citizen scientists, archivists and journalists. Ventures such as the Interactive Autism Network can harness their power to advance autism research, say Paul Law and Cheryl Cohen.
A new mouse model provides the first molecular link between the known autism risk gene PTEN and the mitochondrial dysfunction sometimes seen in the disorder. Mice with half the normal amount of PTEN protein in their brains have social deficits reminiscent of autism and faulty mitochondria, according to a study published 10 August in PLoS One.
Mutations in the CDKL5 gene lead to developmental delay starting at birth, seizures that begin before 3 months of age, and subtly atypical facial features, according to a study published 8 August in the European Journal of Human Genetics.
About one in three children with autism abruptly lose language, social or other developmental skills in their second year of life, according to a meta-analysis published 2 August in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.