Losing someone we love is one of the most challenging things we'll ever face.Source: The Autism Site

Two independent sets of mice missing a copy of SETD5, a top autism gene, link the gene to the condition’s traits. Findings from the mice, in two studies published in the past two months, solidify SETD5’s role in autism. One study shows that neurons from mice missing SETD5 make fewer connections than…

Check out this really cool concept that helps people who became blind later in their lives detect colors. This Braille enabled 8 ball has an RGB color sensor at the bottom that, when placed on an object, detects its color. This color sensor is connected to an Arduino Flora (a wearable electronic chi…

Now Haley Moss is an accomplished activist, author, artist, and attorney at law.Source: The Autism Site

A customizable Styrofoam head mold minimizes movements during brain scans, enabling researchers to produce clearer images1. During a typical functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan, researchers take multiple pictures of a person’s brain and combine them. If the person’s head moves during t…

The government of Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, Canada, recently announced its intentions to overhaul the Ontario Autism Program, something the province’s minister of children, community and social services has described as a “broken … Liberal mess” that the Conservatives inherited. My son, Seb…

The post Spotted around the web: Week of 11 February 2019 appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

People with autism show scant activity in a poorly understood molecular process thought to regulate gene expression in the brain, according to a new study1. The process, called RNA editing, turns out to involve two proteins central to fragile X syndrome, one of the most common causes of autism. The …

Unemployment rates in the autism community are alarming, but the number of individuals entering the workforce only continues to grow. This presents an overwhelming challenge for special educators tasked with preparing learners for what is often an uncertain future. Vocational training is essential a…

By Gretchen Leary We often think of bravery and greatness as almost the same. But what if we considered the idea that sometimes bravery can also mean the ability to be humble without shame? We often think of bravery as an action that we do with our body but we don’t always associate it with what we …

The part of the nervous system that regulates heart rate and breathing is involved in autism, a new study suggests1. Specifically, the changes in heart rate that ordinarily accompany breathing are slow to develop in autistic children. Heart rate usually speeds up slightly as a person inhales and slo…

The post Europe’s race to ramp up genetic tests for autism appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

This is infuriating.Source: The Autism Site

What makes a successful autism treatment depends on whom you ask. A researcher may judge a treatment based on the results of a clinical trial or on the outcome measure chosen. For an autistic person, the best measure of success might be an improvement in quality of life. To others, no ‘treatment’ ma…