Heightened sensory perception in toddlers with autism predicts sleep problems at around age 7, according to a new study1. The findings suggest that sensory sensitivities interfere with sleep in children with autism. They also hint that adjusting for these sensitivities — by minimizing background lig…

Many individuals with autism have hearing problems. In fact, Leo Kanner included this trait in his original description of autism. The type and severity of these problems vary: Some autistic people are hypersensitive to sound, such that a doorbell can trigger intense fear or panic; others have diffi…

Finding a mutation linked to autism traits can have life-changing consequences for autistic individuals and their families. Host Ben Kuebrich tells their stories. Read the related articles here. The post Spectrum Stories: The benefits of genetic testing in autism appeared first on Spectrum | Autism…

Motor problems in autistic infants parallel those in infants with other developmental conditions, according to research based on hundreds of children1. The findings dash the hopes of scientists hoping to find signature delays associated with autism that would help them diagnose the condition early. …

For Savannah Treviño-Casias, this week’s news about the U.S. college admissions cheating scandal was galling, considering how much red tape the Arizona State University senior went through to get disability accommodations when she took the SAT exam. “It felt like such a big slap in the face,” said T…

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

Autism BrainNet, a repository of postmortem brains, has new tissue from more than 150 brains, including 59 from people with confirmed or possible autism. The newly acquired tissue more than doubles the number of autism brains available to researchers through the repository. Autism BrainNet is one of…

Problems with the minute ‘factories’ that yield energy for cells — the mitochondria — contribute to learning problems and other traits of fragile X syndrome, a new study suggests1. The findings also unexpectedly implicate huntingtin, the protein mutated in Huntington’s disease, in fragile X. Fragile…

A much-touted behavioral therapy for autism, the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), may not be as effective as its creators had hoped1. In the latest study of the therapy, it did not improve children’s intelligence quotients (IQ) or adaptive behavior any more than other treatments. Children treated wi…

The post Righting the gender imbalance in autism studies appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News