How dining out with my daughter inspired my autism studies
Restaurants can be stressful for my daughter Frances, who has autism, but her difficulties led me to try to better understand and treat her type of situational anxiety.
Restaurants can be stressful for my daughter Frances, who has autism, but her difficulties led me to try to better understand and treat her type of situational anxiety.
Researchers are building on the bright ideas of high school students to bring ambitious biotechnology tools to life.
Two seemingly similar mutations in the SHANK3 gene have divergent effects on the brain and behavior.
Some people with autism have an exceptional talent for music, math, art or language. What accounts for their extraordinary brains?
An immune molecule that helps defend people from infection with viruses or bacteria may also keep brain activity in check, allowing people to be social.
There are hints that transcranial magnetic stimulation, which uses electricity to change how brain cells function, might improve the symptoms of autism. But hopes are running way ahead of the facts.
A mathematical model of the brain’s circuits shows how neurons stuck in overdrive could produce symptoms of autism. The model may reveal how autism-linked behaviors arise from underlying biology.
Researchers have for the first time mapped gene expression in the rhesus macaque brain from birth through adulthood. The atlas illuminates the expression patterns of genes likely to be important in autism.
The little-studied autism gene ANKRD11 helps to package DNA in the nucleus and plays a critical role in the early growth and positioning of neurons.
Fetal mice that have too many neurons grow to show social deficits and repetitive behaviors. The finding, reported 11 December in Cell Reports, debuts a mouse model of autism that’s based on a biological abnormality seen in some people with the disorder.