Children with autism have higher levels than controls of dendritic cells, a subset of immune cells, according to a study published 11 October in Brain Behavior and Immunity.

The motor cortex of children with autism is wired differently than that of typically developing children, reports a study published 22 October in Human Brain Mapping.

Smart risk management has propelled Benjamin Philpot from one adventure to another, whether it’s attempting unusual drug screens, learning to rock climb or taking his family to see volcanoes in Chile. His optimism and scientific vigor have led to discoveries for the rare Angelman syndrome, and for the wider autism spectrum.

Young boys with fragile X syndrome or autism have larger brains overall than controls do, but the two groups show enlargement of different parts of the brain, according to an imaging study published in September in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Genes involved in neuropsychiatric disorders tend to be required for the formation of primary cilia — small tentacles on the cell surface that sense the external environment — according to a study published 3 October in PLoS One.

Sebastian Seung launched a new online community game that aims to map the trillions of connections in the human brain. How might crowdsourcing advance autism research?

A new study bolsters the idea that overactive protein synthesis contributes to autism. The findings, published 21 November in Nature, show that dampening a single overabundant protein, neuroligin-1, reverses both abnormal brain activity and social deficits in mice.

Children with the autism-related disorder tuberous sclerosis complex show sluggish brain activity in response to images of faces, according to a study published 8 November in the Journal of Child Neurology.

The brains of newborn pigs are similar in shape and mature at the same rate as those of human infants. That makes piglets a good model for studying neurological disorders, according to a study published in the November issue of The Journal of Nutrition.

A newly discovered DNA modification may play a role in development and regulate the expression of genes linked to fragile X syndrome and autism, according to a study published 5 October in Human Molecular Genetics.