Watch the complete replay of William Catterall explaining how low doses of an anxiety drug alleviate autism-like symptoms in mice.

Mice missing PTEN, a strong autism candidate gene, in a subtype of inhibitory neurons in one part of the brain show signaling abnormalities and social deficits. Researchers presented the unpublished work yesterday at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

The equivalent of one-tenth of a single pill of the anxiety drug clonazepam alleviates many autism-like behaviors in a mouse model of the disorder, according to a study published 19 March in Neuron.

Thought until recently to only coordinate motor skills, the cerebellum is involved in diverse cognitive functions such as language and social interaction, and may play a role in autism, says Emanuel DiCicco-Bloom.

Long pieces of RNA that do not code for protein have diverse and important roles in the cell and may contribute to autism risk, say Nikolaos Mellios and Mriganka Sur.

By matching the genes expressed in particular cell types with those linked to a disorder, researchers may be able to identify the cell types implicated in the disorder, they report in a study published 22 January in the Journal of Neuroscience. They use this method to link interneurons and immune cells to autism.

The motor problems seen in Rett syndrome may be the result of deficits in a reward pathway in the striatum, according to a study published 12 November in Brain Structure and Function. 

Studies at the level of neural circuits are needed to better understand the importance of both increased and decreased connectivity between different regions in the autism brain, say John Rubenstein and Vikaas Sohal.

Oxytocin may enhance brain signaling by increasing the strength of the signals and minimizing background noise, according to a study published 4 August in Nature.

Two different autism-linked mutations in the same gene implicate the endocannabinoid system, which regulates appetite, mood and memory, in autism, according to a study published 8 May in Neuron.