Even temporary bouts of too little non-REM sleep can lead to long-term changes in how the animals respond to certain social situations, new research suggests.

Mice with a mutated copy of SHANK3 fail to establish normal sleep patterns during development.

The young researcher from Uruguay uses her expertise in genetics — and discipline as a former athlete — to untangle sleep’s role in neurodevelopmental conditions, one experiment at a time.

A new study is the first to link social, repetitive and motor behaviors to mutations in BMAL1, which regulates the body’s circadian rhythms.

Pups born to mothers that experience low oxygen during sleep have overactive mTOR signaling, which has been linked to some forms of autism.

Sleep problems may contribute to or derive from autism traits — or both. After decades of work, researchers are beginning to uncover the biological connections between the two conditions, revealing new paths to potential treatments.

Researchers requested the retraction of their study linking low vitamin A levels to sleep troubles in autistic children after discovering “fundamental errors” in their data.

An atypical thalamus may underlie not only sensory issues in autism but also difficulties with social skills, attention and memory.

Over the past century, scientists have used a variety of animal models to advance their understanding of the developing brain and autism.

In the past two decades, some autism researchers have turned to simple animals, such as roundworms, fruit flies and zebrafish, for their investigations. Others have sought answers from experiments with frogs, birds and even octopuses.