With a tiny diode inserted into a mouse’s skull, researchers can stimulate its neurons while it runs freely on an exercise wheel or crawls through cardboard tubes, they reported yesterday at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Tune in for daily updates and reactions from attendees at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

On 18 November, SFARI.org hosted a Twitter Q&A live from the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Stephan Sanders has quickly climbed the ranks in autism research. At 35, he’s already credited with bringing a measure of clarity to autism genetics. And that’s just one feat in a long and accomplished resume.

Boys with autism who carry rare, spontaneous mutations have lower intelligence quotients and more severe symptoms than do those who may have inherited the disorder. The finding, published 21 October in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, hints at two classes of autism risk with varying severity.

The term ‘deficit model’ traditionally means treating people with autism by focusing on their limitations rather than their strengths. Chris Gunter introduces the deficit model in a different context: science communication.

A new online database called Braineac details how variations in DNA sequence shape gene expression in the human brain.

Researchers have sequenced the whole genomes of 1,000 people with autism and their parents, they announced yesterday at the American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting in San Diego. These sequences, and another 1,000 that are on the way, will eventually be freely available online.

Having an enlarged head in early childhood is not a reliable marker of autism, according to two new studies that tracked changes in head and body size in children over time.

Watch the complete replay of David Amaral and Alison Singer’s webinar on the potential of postmortem brain research for understanding autism.