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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Author

Deborah Rudacille

Former News Editor, SFARI.org

Deborah Rudacille earned an M.A. in science writing from Johns Hopkins University in 1998. She worked as a research writer at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and as senior science writer at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Rudacille is the author of three books: The Scalpel and the Butterfly (2000), The Riddle of Gender (2004) and Roots of Steel (2010). She joined SFARI.org’s team as news editor in 2010.

October 2010

Multi-gene deletion creates model for Angelman syndrome

by  /  7 October 2010

A new mouse model of Angelman syndrome that knocks out a large stretch of a key chromosome is clarifying some of the molecular mechanisms underlying the more severe forms of the disorder.

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Science by zodiac

by  /  5 October 2010

Research has hinted that the season of a child’s birth may play some role in his or her risk of developing various neuropsychiatric disorders. But it’s the season of conception that really matters, a new study suggests.

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September 2010

Infant gaze signals autism risk, study suggests

by  /  30 September 2010

At 6 months of age, siblings of children with autism are less likely to gaze spontaneously at their caregivers while focused on learning a new task, though they learn the task just as quickly as do low-risk infants, according to a study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

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Yawning gap

by  /  28 September 2010

Children with autism are less likely to yawn when others do, perhaps because they tend not to unconsciously mimic behavior.

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Researchers debut unique identifiers for study participants

by  /  2 September 2010

Researchers have devised a system to assign a unique identifier to each participant in an autism study. This Global Unique Identifier, or GUID, allows investigators to see which other studies participants have enrolled in, while maintaining participants’ privacy.

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August 2010

Social factors may drive the spike in autism cases

by  /  27 August 2010

Changes in diagnostic practices, more active neighborhood networks, and an increase in the number of older parents may all contribute to the massive rates of autism in California, says a group of social scientists. But the numbers still don’t add up.

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Disability vs. difference

by  /  26 August 2010

People with autism are asserting their right to be different. They say so-called ‘neurotypicals’ are the ones with communication problems, relying on the ‘animalistic means’ of body language, and they don’t understand why their focused, repetitive behaviors are thought to be problematic when neurotypicals indulge in obsessions such as sports and soap operas.

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Venn diagnoses

by  /  25 August 2010

Three articles published in the past few weeks show that diagnostic categories marked off neatly on the page often bleed together messily in the clinic.

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Diagnostic scans for autism not imminent, experts say

by  /  13 August 2010

An imaging study widely interpreted as heralding a diagnostic brain scan for autism is more preliminary than popular media reports would indicate, according to experts familiar with the work.

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