Chris Gunter and Daniel MacArthur discuss guidelines for assessing the evidence that a genetic variant causes autism or another disorder.

Inducing seizures in young mice leads to autism-like social behavior, as well as problems with learning and memory, according to a paper published 29 March in Experimental Neurology.

The cortex, the outer layer of the brain, grows rapidly in early childhood in people with autism and thins differently with age than it does in controls, two new studies report.

A much-celebrated technique called optogenetics causes neurons to fire in response to flashes of light. Researchers have now figured out how to use the method to switch neurons off, reports a study published 25 April in Science.

People with autism often feel anxious, worrying about everyday events and ruminating on their fears for long periods of time, reports a study published 8 May in the journal Autism.

A teenage girl with Rett syndrome has a mutation in WFR45, a gene that is mutated in people who abruptly lose motor and mental skills in adulthood, according to a study published 13 March in the Journal of Human Genetics.

People with autism tend to carry mutations that duplicate or delete several genes at once, according to a large study published 1 May in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

A new policy that aims to eliminate gender bias in animal and cell-based biomedical research is outlined in the 15 May Nature.
 

The nature of the mutation that leads to Angelman syndrome — a disorder characterized by speech impairment and developmental delays — affects the disorder’s presentation, reports a study published 19 March in Research in Developmental Disabilities.

About one in every three adults who lack a brain structure called the corpus callosum meet the diagnostic criteria for autism, according to a study published 25 April in Brain. However, not all of these people develop symptoms in early childhood, as is typical in autism.