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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Author

Emily Singer

Opinion and Community Editor

Emily Singer commissions and edits scientist-written content and develops new resources for the community. She joined the Spectrum team in 2023 and has previously held a variety of editorial roles at the Simons Foundation, including editor for neuroscience collaborations, and senior biology writer and contributing editor at Quanta Magazine. Before joining the foundation, she was biomedical editor at Technology Review. She is a graduate of the Science Communication Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Contact Info

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January 2012

Screen time

by  /  6 January 2012

Children with autism are twice as likely as controls to spend most of their free time watching television or videos.

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To make big data available to all, reach for the clouds

by  /  5 January 2012

As the amount of genomics and other data rapidly grows, researchers are turning to cloud computing; commercial services for remote data storage and processing that allow even those with little infrastructure to handle big data.

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Research evolution

by  /  3 January 2012

A new study examining trends in autism research over the past 40 years found that the largest areas of growth have been in immune function, oxidative stress, toxin exposure, genetics and neuroimaging, while research on theory of mind and neuropathology has slowed.

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December 2011

New scheme ramps up efforts to aggregate autism data

by  /  19 December 2011

The nation’s largest database of autism research is about to get even bigger, thanks to a partnership between the National Database for Autism Research, a repository of data from 25,000 participants, and the Autism Genetic Research Exchange, a database of 2,500 families.

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Model empathy

by  /  16 December 2011

Rats possess a surprising sense of empathy, according to research published last week in Science. The findings highlight one more reason why rats, with their complex repertoire of social behavior, may be well suited for autism studies.

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Pharma’s shift

by  /  13 December 2011

Swiss drugmaker Novartis plans to close its neuroscience research facility in Switzerland, but research on fragile X drugs will continue.

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November 2010

Hazel Sive: A fish tale

by  /  29 November 2010

Hazel Sive is a classically-trained embryologist and developmental biologist, and an expert in zebrafish genetics. She is using the small, transparent fish embryos for research on autism — an odd choice, as they obviously lack the complex behavioral repertoire seen in the disorder.

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May 2008

Christopher Walsh: Solving mysteries of the mind in the Middle East

by  /  13 May 2008

At first glance, the waiting room at the Ministry of Health Hospital in Muscat, Oman, may look different than that of your average American hospital. Men dressed all in white and women in black burqas wait in separate rooms, even if they are members of the same family. But talking to these families soon reveals just how similar they are to their American counterparts, says Christopher Walsh, a neurologist who has studied neurodevelopmental disorders in the Middle East for nearly 10 years.

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