The Brain

A new technique leads to neuron cultures of consistent quality, enabling scientists to study how autism mutations alter neurons.

A new method for growing brain organoids allows them to survive for up to a year — more than four times as long as is possible with other methods.

Exposure to inflammation in the womb may affect the brain and behavior of males and females differently.

Several of the brain’s responses to sound are sluggish in autistic children who speak few or no words, compared with those who are verbal.

A new computational method sifts true mutations from spurious ones in a single cell’s genome.

Autism is more common among children who have undergone open heart surgery for a congenital heart condition than it is in the general population.

Two drugs that alter the activity of the hormone vasopressin seem to improve social communication in autistic people, but some experts question the findings.

The signaling imbalance theory holds that the brains of autistic people are hyper-excitable because of either excess neuronal activity or weak brakes on that activity.

In autism, a person’s brain may not form accurate predictions of imminent experiences, or even if it does, sensory input may override those predictions.