Going on Trial rounds up new developments in autism-related drug trials. This month we’re revisiting decade-old data from a trial of arbaclofen for fragile X syndrome and looking into a new implant-based approach to quelling seizures, among other treatment strategies.

Brain cell clusters serve as drug screens and reveal connectivity differences for autism-linked conditions, two new models show.

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.

Data from two separate research teams suggest the cells are key to sensory hypersensitivity in fragile X syndrome.

This month’s newsletter explores the pandemic’s effects on autism rates, trends in co-occurring mental health conditions, and the impact of intranasal oxytocin.

The drug quells seizures in children with Dravet syndrome or Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.

Prenatal exposure to topiramate increases a child’s autism odds, according to the study that prompted the inquiry, but experts caution that pregnant people with epilepsy have few other options for controlling seizures.

Long cast in supporting roles in the brain, astrocytes are now emerging as primary players in certain characteristics of autism and related conditions.

A handful of scientists are committed to advancing research on the autism-related genetic conditions their own children have.

The approach, tested in mice, selectively boosts the expression of the autism-linked gene SCN1A in a subgroup of inhibitory cells.