The Brain

A screening technique tests how inactivated genes affect spheres of cultured brain cells; it could shed light on autism-linked mutations.

Researchers have devised a new way of seeing how gene mutations affect cells during development.

Many people with mutations in the NCKAP1 gene have autism or autism traits, according to a new study spanning seven countries.

A new study pinpoints the genes and cell types that may underlie the atypical brain structure seen in people with genetic conditions linked to autism.

Babies who are later diagnosed with autism have a sluggish brain response to sound on a universal newborn hearing screen.

People who have large mutations associated with autism and schizophrenia share atypical patterns of brain connectivity, according to a new study, especially between areas that process sensory information.

Autistic boys with large brains in early childhood still have large brains in adolescence, challenging the long-standing idea that brain enlargement in autism is temporary.

Mice with mutations in the autism-linked gene SYNGAP1 have trouble sensing touch, which may stem in part from brain-circuit alterations and dulled alertness.

Autistic people’s ability to understand another person’s thinking does not diminish with age, as it does for non-autistic people.