Rare or common, inherited or spontaneous, mutations form the core of autism risk.
Marriages between first cousins are frowned upon in the U.S. and western Europe, but they are common throughout much of the world. A new study shows that these consanguineous unions can help researchers uncover genetic risk factors for neurodevelopmental diseases.
Giving GLYX-13, a drug that targets an autism-associated brain pathway, to rats bred to be less social increases how much they communicate while playing.
The first study to sequence more than 100 genes on the X chromosome in people with autism or schizophrenia has turned up some promising leads.
A study using action potentials, the electrical impulses that trigger signaling, shows that neurons lacking MeCP2, the Rett syndrome protein, have stronger neuronal signals compared with controls, according to a study published in the July Journal of Neurophysiology.
The study of any genetic disorder benefits from including the many diverse human populations in our world, and autism should be no different, says geneticist Christopher Walsh.
A variant of neurexin 1, a gene linked to both autism and schizophrenia, is associated with less brain matter than normal in healthy individuals, according to a study published 8 June in PLoS ONE.
The protein missing in people with fragile X syndrome regulates the activity of more than 800 other proteins, including some key players in autism, according to a study published 22 July in Cell. Many of these autism-associated proteins cluster on either side of the synapse, the junction between neurons.
Small fragments of RNA, called microRNAs, can fine-tune the levels of proteins at the junctions between neurons in response to cell signals, according to a study published 10 June in Molecular Cell.
Broken rules are even more distressing to people with autism than being excluded, according to a new study.
