Since sensory differences became part of the diagnostic criteria for autism in 2013, an increasing number of autism researchers have been drawn to the thalamus, the egg-shaped sensory relay station nestled deep in the brain. The flurry of interest has built a case for the thalamus as an important se…

Adding non-neuronal brain cells called microglia to cortical organoids speeds up the rate at which their neurons mature, increases the synchronization of their firing and appears to reduce cell stress, according to a new study. These changes, as well as others, help the clusters of cultured cells re…

Yahoo Sports, a leading destination for sports fans, today announced the debut of a short documentary produced by Yahoo about its All Blind Fantasy League (ABFL)— a group of sports fanatics who use assistive technology, like screen readers, with the Yahoo Fantasy app to connect with their passion fo…

Sebastian Kessler, a 17-year-old teen with autism, has a daily routine that helps him feel comfortable. But when... The post Non-Verbal Teen With Autism Finds His Voice Through Art appeared first on The Autism Site News. Source: The Autism Site

The 2021 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting (SfN) wrapped up yesterday, after four packed days of virtual presentations. The in-person portion of the event was called off a month ago because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. A slew of technical glitches plagued the online offerings, but Spec…

Treatments that counteract the effects of a mutation in a top autism-linked gene in mice increase the animals’ sociability in adulthood, according to a new unpublished study. Researchers presented the findings virtually at the 2021 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. The results are based on mi…

Hello, and welcome to the Community Newsletter! I’m your host, Chelsey B. Coombs, Spectrum’s engagement editor. We’re beginning this week with a paper on autistic researcher strengths by Aimee Grant, senior research officer in public health at Swansea University, and Helen Kara, honorary senior rese…

Two new unpublished studies presented virtually at the 2021 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting offer insights into synapse development: One maps the trajectories of synapse formation across nine species, and the other characterizes the earliest synapses to arise in the human brain. The findings…

Traveling and seeing the world is on a lot of people’s bucket lists. But what makes traveling even... The post Mom & Autistic Son Write Children’s Book To Inspire Families To Travel Together appeared first on The Autism Site News. Source: The Autism Site

Register for the next Spectrum webinar, featuring Ari Ne’eman, a doctoral student in health policy at Harvard University and president and co-founder of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. Ne’eman will speak about ways to assess clinical progress in autistic people that don’t also promote that they …

The post Spotted around the web: Antisense therapies, mosaic mutations, researcher productivity appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

Increasing expression of the gene that is faulty in Rett syndrome lowers repetitive behaviors in a mouse model of a different autism-linked condition called Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, a new unpublished study demonstrates. Researchers presented the findings virtually at the 2021 Society for Neuroscience …

Hello and welcome to the first edition of Spectrum Launch, a newsletter about how to navigate the uncharted waters of autism research in the early stages of your career. The goal of this newsletter is to provide guidance and resources for early-career autism researchers who are beginning graduate sc…

Dialing up the activity of certain receptors in the amygdala reverses some traits of fragile X syndrome in a rat model of the condition, according to a new study. The finding contradicts the prevailing idea that overactive signaling through these receptors underlies the syndrome’s traits — and offer…