Diagnosing autism in children is difficult enough, but detecting the disorder in adults is even more complicated.

Frequent seizures up the risk of having both autism and the related disorder tuberous sclerosis, according to a study published 15 March in Neurology.

As awareness about autism has spread in California, lower-income families have become more likely to seek a diagnosis of autism, says a new study.

A delayed response to unexpected changes in sound frequency is a marker for language impairment and autism, according to a study published in March in Biological Psychiatry.

Small duplications or deletions of DNA regions — called micro-copy number variations — may not lead directly to disease, but could raise the risk of autism when combined with other mutations, according to a study published in March in the American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics.

There does not appear to be a single genetic or environmental cause of autism, and given the heterogeneity of symptoms, coming up with a clear yes or no test for autism is challenging. Timothy Roberts argues that imaging and electrophysiology are key in the search for autism biomarkers.

Regression, a sudden loss of language and social ability, does not lead to more severe autism, according to a study published in March in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. The study suggests that how autism develops does not influence the long-term outcome of children with the disorder.

Cultural stigma, lack of awareness about mental health and poor medical infrastructure have led to inaccurate diagnoses and artificially low autism prevalence in many countries around the world, epidemiologists say.

Individuals with autism use more brainpower in regions linked to visual perception, and less in those related to planning thoughts and actions, compared with healthy controls, according to a multi-study analysis published today in Human Brain Mapping.

Clumsiness in children with autism may result from the same genetic mutations that contribute to the disorder, according to a study published in February in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.