Sharing data and tools is universally efficient, but the study of autism in particular presents challenges that can benefit from an open-science framework, says Randy Buckner.

Children with autism recruit different brain regions than controls do when estimating how much time has gone by, according to unpublished research presented Monday at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.

Mice lacking one copy of the autism-linked 16p11.2 chromosomal region are thin, deaf and show repetitive behaviors. They also have altered proportions of neurons in their brains, particularly those that express the chemical messenger dopamine. The unpublished results were presented Sunday at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.

Many researchers have reported atypical brain connectivity in people with autism lying passively in a brain scanner. But those differences may be the result of what participants are thinking about, rather than of an underlying neural defect, according to a poster presented Sunday at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.

Researchers are testing a wealth of new treatments for fragile X syndrome, an inherited intellectual disability often accompanied by autism. They presented preliminary results from animal studies of several drugs, as well as an automated approach for screening compounds, Sunday at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.

The anxiety drug diazepam, commonly marketed as Valium, reverses deficits in sensory integration in a mouse model of autism, according to research presented Sunday at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.

In a video interview, Simon Fisher discusses what language genes such as FOXP2 can reveal about the nature of autism.

A distinct region of the social brain is activated when viewing interactions between two people, according to unpublished research presented Sunday at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.

Researchers have charted the normal development of what’s known as the social brain from childhood to young adulthood, according to research presented Sunday at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.

The sperm of old mice has an unusual epigenome, the profile of chemical modifications to the underlying DNA code, according to a poster presented Saturday at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans. The findings suggest an explanation for the so-called paternal age effect in autism.