One research team is cataloging the vocalizations of 1,000 different mice, and a second group is creating a tool that will allow researchers to distinguish calls made by several mice as they interact, according to two posters presented Sunday at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.

The wobbly handwriting of many children with autism may reflect differences in their brains’ motor and working memory systems, according to a poster presented Monday at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.

Individually, common genetic variants confer little risk for autism. But taken together, they may contribute significantly, predicts a statistical analysis published 15 October in Molecular Autism.

After nine long years, the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting is returning to New Orleans. And SFARI.org’s reporters are ready to deliver the best advances in autism research that emerge.

Emerging technologies and software may help assess the subtle behaviors, such as gaze or social gestures, that go awry in children with autism, researchers said at the Engineering and Autism conference earlier this month.

Sophisticated eye-tracking tools and other technologies are making it easier to record and analyze social interactions, and may help researchers study social deficits in children with autism. Researchers debuted some of these tools 28 September at the Engineering and Autism conference in Los Angeles.

A subset of questions on two behavioral screens can distinguish children with autism from those with other developmental disorders, according to a study published 23 August in Autism.

The cost of caring for individuals with autism increases throughout childhood and adolescence, by approximately five percent with each year of age.

Want to predict your future? An algorithm promises to foretell your success in five years’ time.

Researchers have used a motion-capture system to show that children with autism do not rely on one side of the body more than the other when walking. Their findings were published in the 2012 issue of Autism Research Treatment.