Autistic toddlers have unusually strong connections between sensory areas of the brain.

Children with autism have trouble learning that faces convey information, which may explain their tendency to miss social cues.

One in five autistic people may have synesthesia, a crossing of the senses. Studying synesthesia in autism may deepen our understanding of both conditions.

Growing ranks of researchers on the spectrum are overcoming barriers — from neurotypical bias to sensory sensitivities — to shape autism science.

Children who have autistic older siblings have bigger neural responses than controls do in the brain networks that process faces.

Areas of the brain involved in processing vision are more weakly connected to those that process sensory information in autistic children than in controls.

Mice missing an autism gene called SHANK3 tend to be hypersensitive to touch, which may stem from underactivity of neurons that normally dampen sensory responses.

The branch of the nervous system that regulates subconscious bodily processes such as breathing and digestion may play a key role in autism.

Studies of the brain’s sensory system may provide unique insight into the brain mechanisms that underlie autism and could point to possible treatments.

A mix of two drugs eases hypersensitivity to noise in mice missing an autism gene — offering the promise of a similar treatment for autistic people.