The first study of autism in Oman reveals that only 114 children have been diagnosed with the disorder.

Research has hinted that the season of a child’s birth may play some role in his or her risk of developing various neuropsychiatric disorders. But it’s the season of conception that really matters, a new study suggests.

Children with autism are less likely to yawn when others do, perhaps because they tend not to unconsciously mimic behavior.

A common variation within a region on chromosome 16 puts a large proportion of the general population at risk for intellectual disability, according to a study published in August in Nature Genetics.

A newly characterized gene on the X chromosome may be disrupted in up to one percent of people with autism, researchers reported Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine.

A five-minute brain scan can help diagnose developmental disorders including autism in young children, headlines blared last week. That may be true several years down the line, but I’d say it’s a pretty big exaggeration of the actual findings.

In popular culture — from the TV show
to high-traffic health blogs — I’ve noticed more and more stories about the domestic difficulties that come from raising a child with autism, particularly the emotional and financial toll it takes on parents.

Changes in diagnostic practices, more active neighborhood networks, and an increase in the number of older parents may all contribute to the massive rates of autism in California, says a group of social scientists. But the numbers still don’t add up.

Three articles published in the past few weeks show that diagnostic categories marked off neatly on the page often bleed together messily in the clinic.

The Autism Birth Cohort, based on data from 100,000 Norwegian children and their families, aims to uncover genetic and environmental factors contributing to the disorder.