Connections between neighboring groups of brain cells are weaker in individuals with autism than in controls, according to a report published 14 January in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation may provide a noninvasive approach to studying how connections in the human brain change in response to new information, and how that process is altered in autism, says Lindsay Oberman.

Neurons in mice that model fragile X syndrome show immature, overexcitable firing patterns, particularly during sleep, according to unpublished research presented last week at the Salk Institute, Fondation IPSEN and Nature Symposium on Biological Complexity in La Jolla, California.

Young boys with fragile X syndrome or autism have larger brains overall than controls do, but the two groups show enlargement of different parts of the brain, according to an imaging study published in September in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Children with the autism-related disorder tuberous sclerosis complex show sluggish brain activity in response to images of faces, according to a study published 8 November in the Journal of Child Neurology.

Heavier newborns have larger brains later in life, and a larger cerebral cortex — the brain region responsible for high-level functions such as consciousness and language. The findings, published 19 November in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are the first to assess birth weight’s connection to brain development.

‘Hyperscanning,’ a set of techniques for simultaneously measuring brain activity in two people, is yielding insights into autism.

Loss of one copy of TBR1, an autism-linked gene involved in fetal brain development, leads to brain malformations, according to a study published in the September issue of Molecular Syndromology.

An autism-linked protein called CASPR2 promotes the development of dendrites, the bushy structures atop neurons that receive signals from other neurons, according to a study published 30 October in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Lowering CASPR2 levels leads to sparse dendrites and few synapses, the junctions between neurons.

Researchers have genetically engineered neurons to fluoresce in response to the calcium signals emitted when they fire, according to a study published 18 October in Neuron.