A cancer drug shows promise as a treatment for Angelman syndrome, according to a study published today in Nature.

Studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie autism is crucial to advancing our understanding of the disorder, says neuroscientist Eric Kandel.

A well-studied mouse model of autism has a smaller-than-normal volume in several autism-associated brain regions.

FOXP2, a gene tied to autism and language disorders, is needed for proper wiring of the developing brain, according to a study published 7 July in PLoS Genetics.

Researchers have created a mouse carrying a deletion in SHANK3, an autism candidate gene, they reported yesterday in Nature. This is the second model of SHANK3 mutations but shows markedly more behavioral and brain defects compared with the first.

Children with autism show abnormally strong synchrony between deep and outer layers of the brain, according to a study published online 31 December in Biological Psychiatry.

Researchers are tinkering with mouse models to investigate the function of a protein that helps wire neurons together and that has repeatedly been linked to autism. Three such reports of the protein, neuroligin-1, have appeared this year.

Although the head overall is bigger in some children with autism, researchers have found more informative differences in size — some smaller, some larger — across regions of the brain.