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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Tag: vocalization

July 2023
Research image of neurons.

Abundant motor proteins disrupt cries in FOXP2 mice

by ,  /  28 July 2023

Knocking down the gene that codes for the proteins normalizes the vocalizations.

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April 2023
Research image showing FOXP1 gene expression in female zebra finch brains.

Lacking autism-linked gene, female birds tune out favorite songs

by  /  21 April 2023

The gene, FOXP1, influences an animal’s motivation to listen to social communication, a new study suggests.

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September 2022
Constantina Theofanopoulou strikes a dancer's pose in her lab.

Beyond the bench: Learning new moves with dancer-scientist Constantina Theofanopoulou

by  /  13 September 2022

Theofanopoulou shares how flamenco stepped up the pace of her social-communication research, and what’s behind the ‘no fear’ ethos in her new lab.

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July 2022

New software flags autism rat model’s telltale squeaks

by  /  29 July 2022

By breaking rodent vocalizations into parts, TrackUSF distinguishes rats with mutations in the SHANK3 gene from their wildtype counterparts.

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May 2022

Researchers publish new dataset on minimally verbal autistic people

by  /  18 May 2022

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published the first repository of vocalizations from minimally verbal autistic people. Those with few or no spoken words still produce a range of phonemes, or units of sound, that may serve as developmental markers or intervention targets.

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December 2021

Birdsong-related DNA sequences tied to autism-linked genes

by  /  6 December 2021

Genes that appear to play a role in some birds’ ability to learn songs are frequently mutated in autistic people.

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September 2021
Colorful illustration shows a boy talking and a bird singing, with the sounds merging between them.

Tuning into bird songs for clues to autism

by  /  8 September 2021

Parallels between how birds learn to sing and how children learn to speak provide a window into the roots of language difficulties in autism.

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May 2021
Brown rat mother and pup in rustic setting with burlap and wheat.

Maternal antibodies tied to autism bind to budding rat neurons

by  /  6 May 2021

Certain antibodies may shape neurodevelopment by attaching to and invading new neurons in the brain.

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February 2021
Singing zebra finches

Autism gene interference silences song memory in birds

by  /  19 February 2021

Muffling expression of an autism-linked gene in a key song-related area of the brain renders young zebra finches unable to learn songs from older birds.

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November 2020
A child with a young adult giving a test based on play.

Test measures autistic children’s language ability across wide age, skill range

by  /  4 November 2020

A new test can measure the language skills of autistic children of any verbal ability, at almost any age.

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