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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Opinion Archive

June 2012

Q&A with Luca Santarelli: Targeting neuronal connections

by  /  12 June 2012

Luca Santarelli, head of neuroscience at Roche, explains why he is optimistic that pharmaceutical companies can overcome the obstacles in autism drug development.

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Counting conditions

by  /  8 June 2012

A tool designed to detect psychiatric disorders in people with autism may produce more accurate estimates of co-occurring conditions.

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Valproate fate

by  /  5 June 2012

A new rat study shows that the precise timing of early valproate exposure, an autism risk factor, can have a big influence on behavior later in development.

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May 2012

Global road map

by  /  29 May 2012

Two reviews sketch a road map for understanding and treating autism in low- and middle-income countries.

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Population-based studies key for assessing autism prevalence

by  /  29 May 2012

Studies of autism prevalence should screen a representative sample of all individuals in the population, even those with no indications of the disorder, says epidemiologist Young-Shin Kim.

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Social games

by  /  25 May 2012

Multiplayer games can help researchers identify differences in social behavior in people with autism.

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Rinse and repeat

by  /  22 May 2012

Researchers typically use only one ‘cohort,’ a group of about three dozen mice, for a given set of experiments. When others repeat the experiments with a different set of animals, sometimes the results hold up, and sometimes they don’t.

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Shrinking brains

by  /  18 May 2012

Long-term treatment with antipsychotic drugs and mood stabilizers can change the structure of the brain.

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Personalizing medicine

by  /  15 May 2012

A pilot project highlights how adult stem cells could be used to test and select personalized therapies.

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Q&A with Eric Fombonne: Are autism’s rising rates real?

by  /  15 May 2012

Child psychiatrist and epidemiologist Eric Fombonne digs through the latest report on the prevalence of autism, suggesting reasons for the apparent increase in the disorder’s rates. 

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