Rett syndrome, a neurological disorder that shares some features with autism, can be severe and debilitating. But some people with the disorder can regain social skills years after diagnosis.
The controversial theory that characterizes autism as the result of an ‘extreme male brain’ gets fresh support from a large new survey, but critics are skeptical.
To characterize people who carry deletions in 16p11.2 and 15q13.3, genetic regions linked to autism, two studies published this summer looked in detail at dozens of people with either deletion. The studies found that deletions in these regions lead to diverse symptoms that only sometimes include autism.
Autism pioneer Uta Frith reminisces about dramatic shifts in British researchers’ understanding of autism that effectively ended the institutionalization of children with the disorder.
Individuals who shed their autism diagnosis as they grow up don’t just overcome their social deficits — they also cease to show restricted interests and repetitive behaviors.
A test designed to characterize natural, spontaneous language use in autism shows solid promise in its first trials in typically developing children.
At its core, autism is the same disorder worldwide. But most screening methods for the disorder were developed in the U.K. and U.S., and linguistic and cultural differences can alter their performance elsewhere.
The idea that people with autism don’t feel strong emotions is a myth: Many of them are vulnerable to depression, despair and even suicide. New research documents alarmingly high rates of suicidal thoughts and actions in this group — and suggests that their distress takes unique forms.
Epidemiological ‘just-so’ stories, which infer causes of autism from general trends in prevalence, are in danger of repeating the mistakes of social Darwinism, says Mayada Elsabbagh.
A new method for measuring severity in disorders such as autism can help researchers correct for the widely varying autism symptoms in the study participants, according to a paper published 2 May in NeuroImage.