People who have large mutations associated with autism and schizophrenia share atypical patterns of brain connectivity, according to a new study, especially between areas that process sensory information. The findings offer a potential explanation for why different genetic changes can lead to the sa…

Autistic boys with large brains in early childhood still have large brains in adolescence, according to a new study. Autistic girls, too, have brains that grow differently from those of their non-autistic peers. The findings challenge the long-standing idea that brain enlargement in autism is tempor…

Catrina Thompson doesn’t worry about the safety of her 16-year-old autistic son Christopher when they’re in their hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. There, Thompson is chief of police, and most people on the force know Christopher, she says. The officers also all get two training sessions on…

Mutations in a set of 35 genes linked to autism affect both neurons and glial cells in developing mice, according to a study published today. The study is the first to screen multiple autism-gene mutations, one by one, in living mice and analyze their effects in individual brain cells. About 100 gen…

Autistic people may find eye contact uncomfortable. They may rock back and forth or flap their hands, particularly when they feel anxious. And they sometimes have trouble answering questions — all traits that can confuse and alarm law-enforcement officers, firefighters and ambulance crews who aren’t…

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Spectrum is covering the 2020 International SYNGAP1 Scientific Conference, which took place virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. Here we’re highlighting researchers’ reactions to noteworthy presentations. Drug test: A new assay allows researchers to test thousands of candidate drugs for th…

Last year, we completed a project to determine whether psychoeducational therapies for young autistic children are effective. Initially, we were excited: We had been able to track down 150 studies completed over the past five decades comparing treatment and control groups. Locating such a large numb…

Mice with mutations in the autism-linked gene SYNGAP1 have trouble sensing touch, which may stem in part from brain-circuit alterations and dulled alertness. The findings could help explain the high pain threshold and other sensory-processing problems seen in people with mutations in the gene. Resea…

Mutations in a top autism gene called SYNGAP1 slow the rate at which zebrafish digest food and pass waste. The findings may explain why some people with SYNGAP1 mutations have gastrointestinal (GI) problems. Researchers presented the unpublished work on Tuesday and Wednesday at the 2020 Internationa…