An adventure story about a boy with autism is making an appearance in a popular comic book.

Impairments in vision, even if they don’t cause autism, are likely to be manifestations of underlying neural abnormalities, says Pawan Sinha, professor of vision and founder of the humanitarian organization Project Prakash.  

Individuals with autism struggle to switch their attention between sounds and pictures, and are less likely than controls to be distracted by a face, according to two studies published this summer.

With a few screen projectors, a pair of three-dimensional glasses and an 8-foot cubicle, researchers have transported adolescents with autism into shaky virtual worlds and discovered that they have surprisingly stable posture.

Infants with fragile X syndrome spend more time looking at a toy before switching their attention elsewhere than do healthy controls, according to a study published 1 July in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

At a workshop where some of the top scientists in autism research assembled to discuss biomarkers, a 7-year-old girl with the disorder was the real expert.

Breaking down the learning of new concepts into small steps may help people with autism retain new skills.

Individuals with autism do not have so-called ‘eagle-eyed’ vision as reported by some studies, according to research published 10 June in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Studying the infant siblings of children who have autism to identify early signs of the disorder is expected to have enormous impact on the field from a clinical and a basic science standpoint, says psychologist Karen Dobkins.

Sensory sensitivity is one of the most understudied aspects of autism. That’s a serious problem, because it underlies much of the distress experienced by people with the disorder, says best-selling author and animal scientist Temple Grandin.