Autism is a chameleon: What it looks like changes from one person to the next. Individual differences crop up both in its core features and in the conditions that often accompany it: depression, epilepsy, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Autism also travels with a number of rare…

Autism frequently co-occurs with any of a long list of other conditions. But none may be more closely linked than epilepsy. Nearly half of all autistic people have epilepsy, according to some reports, suggesting that the two conditions share underlying biology. For example, both conditions are chara…

Marmosets exposed to a mock infection in the womb show altered vocal development and diminished social interest. The results herald the second primate species to model the effects of maternal immune activation, one of the strongest environmental theories of autism. Researchers presented the unpublis…

Mouse models of two genetic conditions related to autism show abnormalities in their movement patterns. The findings could help scientists address the motor impairments that often accompany autism. “Genetic mouse models are a really promising way to look at gait development in a high-throughput, gen…

Mice missing a copy of CHD8, a top autism gene, show a signaling imbalance in their brains — a finding in line with a popular hypothesis about autism’s origins. Researchers presented the unpublished findings today at the 2019 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Neurons in d…

The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, launched by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2013, has a lofty goal: to unravel the cellular basis of cognition and behavior. Since the initiative’s launch, the NIH has doled out about $1 billion to …

The post Spotted around the web: Week of 14 October 2019 appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

A new method uses DNA mutations to maintain a detailed record of series of cellular events1. The system, called DNA-based Ordered Memory and Iteration Network Operator (DOMINO), could also enable researchers to study cell signaling, control the sequence and timing of gene expression in cells, and tr…

The post Webinar: Jennifer Beighley and Caitlin Hudac discuss CHD8 mutations in autism appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

17 October 2019: Heading to Chicago The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) meeting gets underway on Saturday morning in Chicago, Illinois. This year marks a special anniversary: The Society for Neuroscience is turning 50. To celebrate, the conference will feature a preview of an art installation by ARTE…