The discovery could help clinicians diagnose children who carry mutations in the gene, called SCN2A, and gauge their responses to potential therapies.

The gene-editing advances make it easier to target specific tissues in mice and detect off-target effects.

The temporary easing of traits that a minority of autistic children are reported to show during or after a fever may stem from a rise in body temperature.

These short reports from Spectrum journalists highlight some of the autism-related findings that caught our attention at the meeting this past week.

Treatments that counteract the effects of an SCN2A mutation in mice increase the animals’ sociability in adulthood, according to a new unpublished study.

Altered electrical activity in the neurons of mice with a mutated copy of SCN2A may explain the animals’ autism-like social behaviors.

Deleterious mutations in an autism-associated gene can make neurons hyperexcitable, raising the risk of epileptic seizures.

Researchers can roughly project what autistic children’s lives will look like years down the road. But how good is their crystal ball — and what are its benefits?

Activity patterns of neuronal networks link different genetic subtypes of autism that have similar traits, according to new unpublished research.

A growing body of evidence shows that brain cells called oligodendrocytes may play a larger role in autism than previously thought.