Blocking an enzyme involved in learning and memory corrects brain abnormalities and improves memory in fly and mouse models of fragile X syndrome.

Researchers have developed a 10-minute drawing test that measures reciprocity — an important social skill that children with autism often lack.

Drugs designed to treat fragile X syndrome have yet to show substantial benefits in people. But rather than abandon them, child neurologist Elizabeth Berry-Kravis suggests a new way to measure their effectiveness.

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health conditions, as well as one of the most treatable. But when a person has autism, anxiety symptoms can be hard to see. Matthew Siegel calls for anxiety tests and treatments that are tailored to people with autism.

Oxytocin has long been eyed as a treatment for autism, but trials in people with the disorder have yielded conflicting results. A new study bolsters the case for the so-called ‘trust hormone’ as an autism therapy, finding that it eases social deficits in a mouse model of the disorder.

Home videos may ease social deficits in babies, and a supplement maker is scolded over autism claims.

Engineers and clinicians are collaborating to create wearable sensors that can track the behaviors of people with autism.

Existing autism therapies do little to lower the lifetime costs of having the disorder, so clinicians should consider more efficient and inexpensive alternatives, says David Mandell.

Drugs developed to treat fragile X syndrome may also work for autism because both disorders feature defects at neuronal junctions, suggests a paper published 12 January in Nature Neuroscience.

By analyzing stem cells derived from baby teeth, researchers have tracked a child’s autism to mutations in a gene called TRPC6. The molecular saga highlights a painless way to probe the role some genes play in autism.