A new technology called Action Audio took a giant leap recently to make a sport as enthralling, fast paced, dramatic and visual as Tennis a lot more accessible and enjoyable for people with visual impairment Action Audio is a new ball tracking technology that tracks the ball’s position and conver…

Mutations in three genes strongly associated with autism shift the pace at which certain inhibitory and excitatory neurons develop, according to a study published today in Nature. The findings reveal a novel point of convergence by which the mutations affect brain growth and activity, the researcher…

Angelman syndrome model mice have fewer-than-expected behavioral and motor problems if they grow up in a stimulating enclosure, filled with toys and other enrichments, according to a new study. The mice are missing a copy of UBE3A — the gene mutated or deleted in people with Angelman syndrome, an au…

February is Black History Month. If you have someone you’d like to add to this post, please comment below. The list is dynamic. 1. Anita Cameron Anita is one of the original disability rights activitists in the United States. She worked on the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act …

A study published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics prompted headlines such as “Baby boys who watch TV for at least two hours a day are 3.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism by age three, study finds.” Spectrum asked statistics expert Kristin Sainani, associate teaching professor of epidemiol…

Early in her first postdoctoral position, Hollis Cline first showed her hallmark flair for creative problem-solving. Cline, who goes by Holly, and her adviser, neuroscientist Martha Constantine-Paton, wanted to study the brain’s ‘topographical maps’ — internal representations of sensory input from t…

The Art of Autism kicks off Black History Month 2022 with a poem by Art of Autism board member Angela Weddle. Do you have a poem, art or a blog to share? Email info@artautism.com. My Mother Stands by Angela Weddle My mother stands in front of Robert E. Lee. My mother stands in front of me. My moth…

February is Black History Month. If you have someone you’d like to add to this post, please comment below. 1. Anita Cameron Anita is one of the original disability rights activitists in the United States. She worked on the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Read more about…

FMRP, the protein associated with fragile X syndrome, binds different molecules depending on its location in neurons, according to a new study in mice. Fragile X syndrome, which often co-occurs with autism, is the most common form of inherited intellectual disability. People with the condition have …

Hello, and welcome to the first Spectrum Launch of 2022. In this newsletter, we aim to provide guidance and resources for early-career autism researchers. To start off, let’s talk about getting grants. For context, not all researchers need grants. Some are funded through so-called ‘hard money’ — tha…

February is Black History Month. If you have someone you’d like to add to this post, please comment below. 1. Anita Cameron Anita is one of the original disability rights activitists in the United States. She worked on the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Read more about…

“Jack LOVES Joe. He loves everything about him.” Hello Games, a British video game company relaunched a video game after receiving a request from the parent of an autistic child. Joe Danger is a fun, zero to hero style side scrolling game that involves guiding Joe Danger, the protagonist, thro…

Here it is — your weekly update on important autism research tweets, fresh baked from the computer. Jessica Steinbrenner, advanced research scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her colleagues tweeted a thread via Aut…

By Aaron Bouma For my peoples with disabilities, stigma is something we continuously face. It is how we are perceived to be, to act, and what we are believed to be capable of as well as what expections people have when they become involved with us. Expectations can be like a scale. It can be good …