Estimates for autism’s prevalence in three U.S. states reveal significant inequalities in how children of different races and ethnicities are counted and assessed, according to two new studies. In Wisconsin and Colorado, black and Hispanic children are more likely than white children to lack health …

The post Spotted around the web: Week of 13 May 2019 appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

Adults with autism have a resting heartbeat that rarely varies in frequency, a tendency that may explain some aspects of the condition, a new study suggests1. The findings also hint at a problem in these adults’ ‘autonomic’ nervous system, which controls involuntary functions such as heart rate and …

A new technique leads to neuron cultures of consistent quality, enabling scientists to study how autism mutations alter neurons1. Mutations in genes linked to autism, such as SHANK2 and SHANK3, may lead to abnormal synapses — the junctions between neurons — and disrupted neuronal signaling. Research…

Clinicians can reliably diagnose autism in some toddlers roughly two years earlier than the typical age of diagnosis, a new study suggests1. The researchers assessed more than 1,200 toddlers for autism at least twice using standard diagnostic tools. They diagnosed roughly one in three with the condi…

The post What the ‘broad spectrum’ can teach us about autism appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

Just 10 years ago, the prevalence of autism in Northern Ireland was around 1 percent. Now, between 2.9 and 3.5 percent of children in Northern Ireland are thought to be on the spectrum1,2. Among boys, the prevalence is about 4.5 percent. It is true that the past decade has seen a rise in autism prev…

Organizers of the world’s biggest autism research conference nimbly walked a tightrope this year, aiming to satisfy the meeting’s diverse mix of attendees. The offerings largely satisfied scientists pushing for a focus on biology, while also including enough sessions on social issues to please other…

A new method for growing brain organoids allows them to survive for up to a year — more than four times as long as is possible with other methods1. Brain organoids are tiny balls of cells that mimic the structure and function of the human brain. Researchers grow them from human stem cells that they …

A few years ago, a team of researchers found something peculiar in the patient files of the Laboratory for Molecular Medicine at Partners HealthCare in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Between 2005 and 2007, seven people who were being treated for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy — a sometimes severe cond…