In the brains of some individuals with autism, chemical changes to histones, proteins entwined with DNA, tend to show up near genes linked to the disorder, according to a study published 7 November in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Toddlers with autism who have larger-than-normal heads are also taller and weigh more than controls, according to a study published in October in Archives of General Psychiatry.
Researchers have charted the expression of tiny pieces of RNA in postmortem brain tissue from people with autism, according to unpublished research presented Tuesday at the 2011 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
A new tool called BrainSpan is providing researchers with exquisitely detailed windows into when genes are expressed and where they are located as the brain develops. An overview of the project was presented Sunday at the 2011 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Children with autism have an abnormally large number of neurons in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region important for abstract thinking, planning and social behaviors, according to a study published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
A large, centralized bank of brain tissue from young people could greatly accelerate autism research. Thanks to a growing interest from nonprofit organizations, the idea is finally gaining momentum.
A technique for detecting gene expression that detects short RNA messages is better suited than traditional methods for analyzing postmortem brain tissue, according to a study published 10 September in BMC Genomics.
Postmortem brains from adults with autism have lower-than-normal levels of the fragile X mental retardation protein, which is missing in individuals with fragile X syndrome.
Stem cells reprogrammed to become neurons can provide a picture of gene expression in neurons that is traditionally available only from brain tissue.
Defects in a signaling pathway that regulates learning and memory could underlie regressive autism, a sudden loss of language or social ability.