Skip to main content

Spectrum: Autism Research News

topic /

Treatments

Efforts to ease the symptoms of autism are beginning to ramp up, with promising candidates in various stages of testing.

April 2012

Chili pepper protein can alter behavior of mice

by  /  18 April 2012

By manipulating the location of a protein that detects capsaicin, the molecule responsible for the burn in hot chili peppers, researchers can activate subpopulations of neurons and alter the behavior of mice. The results were published 20 March in Nature Communications.

Comments

Molecular mechanisms: Serotonin regulation linked to autism

by  /  18 April 2012

An autism-associated variant in a gene that regulates the chemical messenger serotonin leads to abnormal serotonin regulation and autism-like behaviors in mice. The results were published 3 April in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Comments

Clinical research: Drug improves quality of life with autism

by  /  17 April 2012

Aripiprazole, a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat irritability in children with autism, may also improve their overall health-related quality of life, according to a retrospective analysis of two clinical trials. The results were published 21 March in Clinical Therapeutics.

Comments

Massive effort planned to map visual brain in mice

by  /  16 April 2012

A ten-year initiative announced last month by the Allen Institute for Brain Science aims to catalog the development, structure and function of neural circuits in the brain at an unprecedented level of detail.

Comments

Cognition and behavior: Language defect identified in autism

by  /  13 April 2012

Children who have both autism and intellectual disability may understand fewer words than their speaking skills suggest, which is not the case for typically developing children or those with intellectual disability alone. The results were published 21 February in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Comments

Molecular mechanisms: Autism gene modulates connectivity

by  /  10 April 2012

Neurons lacking PTEN, an autism-associated gene also involved in cancer, are hyperconnected to both near and distant brain cells, according to a study published 1 February in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Comments

Blocking bullies

by  /  3 April 2012

Children with autism are bullied three times more than their typically developing siblings, according to research from the Interactive Autism Network.

Comments
March 2012

Researchers make neurons from blood cells

by  /  28 March 2012

Researchers have generated neurons from the blood cells of individuals with autism, according to a study published 7 March in Neuroscience Letters.

Comments

Researchers seek ‘active ingredients’ of early intervention

by  /  26 March 2012

Early intensive intervention is the only therapy that has been shown to be effective in young children with autism, according to a 2011 review of autism treatments commissioned by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. But researchers are just beginning to tease out what they refer to as its ‘active ingredients:’ why the treatment works, which elements are essential and why it fails to help some children.

Comments

Clinical research: Joint attention can predict autism outcome

by  /  20 March 2012

How easy it is to engage the attention of a child with autism by gazing or pointing at an object may predict how well he or she will be able to function as an adult, according to a study published in the February issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Comments