With a tiny diode inserted into a mouse’s skull, researchers can stimulate its neurons while it runs freely on an exercise wheel or crawls through cardboard tubes, they reported yesterday at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Researchers have sequenced the whole genomes of 1,000 people with autism and their parents, they announced yesterday at the American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting in San Diego. These sequences, and another 1,000 that are on the way, will eventually be freely available online.
CRISPR, the genetic tool that cuts and pastes DNA, can eliminate specific proteins at the points of connection between neurons. The method, described 3 September in Neuron, could help researchers determine the role of those proteins in brain signaling.
A new technique helps researchers trace the nerve fibers that connect brain regions by revealing how the fibers physically relate to curves and folds on the brain’s surface. The method was described 8 July in Medical Image Analysis.
Researchers have developed a set of software tools called Thunder that can find meaningful patterns in large-scale data on brain activity.
Reprogrammed stem cells carry remnants of their previous cell states in the form of chemical cues that alter gene expression, reports a paper published 10 July in Nature. An alternative method that creates so-called nuclear transfer embryonic stem cells produces fewer errors.
New algorithms can analyze recordings of infants performing tasks that gauge their attention, suggesting a way to automate the detection of autism symptoms.
With the rate of autism now at 1 in 68 people and climbing, the need for solutions that reach the risk population more quickly and effectively has never been more real, say Dennis Wall and Glenn Saxe.
A pair of enzymes improve the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR by providing more precise molecular ‘scissors’ to cut and paste DNA snippets.
A computer game based on face recognition helps children with autism feign expressions more convincingly than before.