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Spectrum: Autism Research News

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The Brain

Charting the structure and function of the brain’s many circuits may unravel autism’s mysteries.

Research illustration of three brain diagrams.

Brain connectivity, behavior flag four autism subtypes

by  /  31 March 2023
A machine-learning technique applied to brain imaging data appears to predict a person’s mix of verbal intelligence, social affect and repetitive behaviors.
Research image of the posterior insular cortex.

Maternal immune response dulls male rats’ social radar

by  /  27 March 2023
Male rats prenatally exposed to a maternal immune response have atypical responses to other rats in distress, according to a new study.
Still image showing activity of activity of neurons with genetic mutations in the 15q11-13 chromosomal region.

Single gene insufficient to account for dup15q, Angelman traits

by  /  21 March 2023
UBE3A, a key gene associated with both autism-linked conditions, can explain most — but not all — of the syndromes’ atypical neuronal properties.
March 2023

Wearable device records, stimulates single neurons in people on the go

by  /  17 March 2023

The tool connects to electrodes implanted in people with epilepsy or other brain conditions and can monitor and regulate neurons during everyday activities.

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MRI scan with a section enlarged to display the scan's grey-white boundary.

Brain imaging do-over offers clues to field’s replication problem

by  /  13 March 2023

Methodological choices and study-site artifacts confounded an attempt to replicate findings in support of an autism brain-imaging biomarker, according to new unpublished work.

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Still from research video displaying wiring map of a fruit fly's brain.

Wiring map reveals how larval fruit fly brain converts sensory signals to movement

by  /  9 March 2023

The map diagrams more than half a million neuronal connections in the first complete connectome of Drosophila and holds clues about which brain architectures best support learning.

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A grid of brain scans.

To repair DNA, neurons harness autism-linked proteins

by  /  6 March 2023

The proteins are part of a newly discovered complex that mends genetic damage exclusively in neurons.

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Mother and child rhesus macaque monkeys

Serotonin initiates earliest social bonds

by  /  2 March 2023

Mice and rats, for example, gravitate toward their mother’s bedding over bedding that is clean or smells of a different dam.

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February 2023
Research image showing the presence of several proteins in neurons.

Protein networks identified in autism-linked genetic deletion

by  /  28 February 2023

The OTUD7A gene, which may account for some traits in people missing a segment of chromosome 15, appears to interact with several known autism-linked genes.

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MRI scan of a 2-year-old child.

Mapping genetic influences on the infant brain: A chat with Rebecca Knickmeyer

by  /  27 February 2023

Researchers know little about the ways genetic variants affect development in the infant brain. Knickmeyer, who launched the Organization for Imaging Genomics in Infancy, has spent the past five years trying to close the gap.

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Brain scans displaying activity in areas linked with social behavior.

People’s perceptions of ‘social’ animations don’t always square with researchers’ labels

by  /  22 February 2023

The finding calls into question differences between autistic and non-autistic people on a decades-old theory-of-mind test involving interacting geometric shapes.

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Research image of the protein CHD2.

Autism-linked chromatin regulators may moonlight as microtubule influencers

by  /  8 February 2023

Five autism-linked genes widely known as chromatin regulators appear to also shape the cell’s internal skeleton.

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Illustration of neurons.

Chromatin remodeling tied to altered splicing in autism model

by  /  7 February 2023

Exposing neurons to valproic acid, a well-known environmental risk factor for autism, disrupts their ability to generate different proteins from the same gene.

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