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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Tag: Simons Simplex Collection

September 2013

In autism, intellectual disability ramps up new mutations

by  /  10 September 2013

Spontaneous mutations are elevated in people with autism, but only in those who also have intellectual disability, according to unpublished data presented yesterday at a conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

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Intellectual disability may unmask autism symptoms

by  /  10 September 2013

The autism-like features seen in related neurological disorders may be the result of intellectual disability and not a shared underlying biology, says Alan Packer.
 

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Conceptual visualization of DNA sequence.

Genetics: Recessive mutations may contribute to autism

by  /  3 September 2013

The genomes of people who have both autism and intellectual disability have more regions that may harbor recessive mutations than those of their unaffected siblings, according to a study published 11 July in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

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Study of nonverbal autism must go beyond words, experts say

by  /  2 September 2013

To better understand and treat nonverbal autism, the field must paradoxically move beyond focusing on speech production, say many researchers. Emerging research suggests that seemingly unrelated issues such as motor skills and joint attention may instead be key.

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August 2013

Large study links autism to autoimmune disease in mothers

by  /  22 August 2013

About one in ten women who have a child with autism have immune molecules in their bloodstream that react with proteins in the brain, according to a study published 20 August in Molecular Psychiatry.

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May 2013

Genetics: Common genomic duplications enriched in autism

by  /  28 May 2013

Children with autism have more copies of some chromosomal regions than controls do, according to a study published 19 April in Human Molecular Genetics. This is true even after excluding the regions that are the most likely to lead to autism.

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Clinical research: Quiet autism toddlers may learn to talk

by  /  10 May 2013

Most children with autism who have language delay at age 4 are able to speak later in childhood, according to a study published in the April issue of Pediatrics.

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Gender differences take center stage at autism conference

by  /  4 May 2013

Girls with autism carry more mutations than do boys with the disorder, and show greater differences in brain activity and response to social cues, according to several preliminary studies presented at the 2013 International Meeting for Autism Research in San Sebastián, Spain.

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April 2013
Scanning electron micrograph view of human chromosomes pair number three.

Genetics: Rare mutation linked to autism, psychosis

by  /  2 April 2013

A boy with a rare deletion in chromosome 3 was diagnosed with autism and psychotic symptoms by age 5, according to a case report published 26 February in the American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A. He is the second identified individual with this deletion who has these symptoms, which are exceedingly rare in combination.

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March 2013

Rho family of enzymes at crossroads of autism

by  /  12 March 2013

A number of autism risk factors converge on one cellular pathway: abnormal remodeling of the cell’s structural systems through the signaling protein Rho, says SFARI’s associate director for research, Alan Packer.

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