When children with autism make grammatical errors, is it due to a fundamental problem in language processing, or rather their difficulty understanding social interactions? Two new studies lend support to the latter idea.

Children with autism activate more brain regions than controls do when listening to tonal inflections in speech that convey meaning. The findings were published 19 December in Child Neuropsychology.

Clinicians and autism researchers should learn the early signs of autism and take into account an individual’s developmental trajectory, says Tony Charman.

Can people with autism, who lack the ability to understand others’ thoughts and feelings, fall in love?

A new study examining trends in autism research over the past 40 years found that the largest areas of growth have been in immune function, oxidative stress, toxin exposure, genetics and neuroimaging, while research on theory of mind and neuropathology has slowed.

The language deficit in autism is complex and diverse. With a no-nonsense and thoughtful approach, Helen Tager-Flusberg has devoted her career to sorting it all out.

Social cognition tests using videos of actors performing emotional expressions and scenes can measure subtle impairments characteristic of high-functioning people with autism, according to unpublished research presented at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Tweaking a common test of spatial reasoning could help people with autism build social skills, according to unpublished research presented Monday at the 2011 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Most neuroscientists who study autism focus on genes, pathways and mouse models, and rarely think about the day-to-day experience of people with the disorder, contends developmental psychologist Ami Klin.

Individuals with autism are no more likely to donate money when being observed than when alone.