Autism News and Research

Latest Autism News and Research

Play - a prescription for autism!

According to an American autism expert, many autistic children, with the right teaching, can overcome many of the disorder's difficult characteristics.

6 Apr 2009

Autism linked with stress hormone levels

Some of the symptoms of the autistic condition Asperger Syndrome, such as a need for routine and resistance to change, could be linked to levels of the stress hormone cortisol, suggests new research led by the University of Bath.

4 Apr 2009

A new theory on autism put forward

Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have proposed a sweeping new theory of autism that suggests that the brains of people with autism are structurally normal but dysregulated, meaning symptoms of the disorder might be reversible.

1 Apr 2009

Do people with autism look at faces differently?

In the first study of its kind researchers will use video clips of spontaneously produced facial expressions in a real life social context to explore emotion recognition in autism.

1 Apr 2009

New insights into how brain responds to viral infection

Scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health have discovered that astrocytes, supportive cells in the brain that are not derived from an immune cell lineage, respond to a molecule that mimics a viral infection using cellular machinery similar to that used by classical immune cells in the blood.

1 Apr 2009

CSHL neuroscientists propose project to comprehensively map mammalian brain circuits

Thirty-seven scientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and 20 other major research institutions in the U.S. and Europe have issued a major challenge to the neuroscience community.

1 Apr 2009

St. Petersburg Times examines decline in antipsychotic drug prescriptions for Florida children

St. Petersburg Times recently examined how since the Florida Medicaid program last year began requiring physicians to receive approval before prescribing antipsychotic drugs to children younger than age six, the number of prescriptions for children in that age group has dropped by nearly 75%, according to new data from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.

31 Mar 2009

Moonlighting immune molecules found in the brain

Molecules assumed to be in the exclusive employ of the immune system have been caught moonlighting in the brain - with a job description apparently quite distinct from their role in immunity.

30 Mar 2009

New York Times examines challenges faced by a Minneapolis hospital that treats many Somali, Hispanic patients

The New York Times on Sunday profiled the Hennepin County Medical Center, a Minneapolis-based hospital that "offers an extraordinary vantage point on the ways immigrants are testing the American medical establishment."

30 Mar 2009

Autism skews developing brain with synchronous motion and sound

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) tend to stare at people's mouths rather than their eyes.

29 Mar 2009

Heightened level of amygdala activity may cause social deficits in autism

Something strange is going on in the amygdala - an almond-shaped structure deep in the human brain - among people with autism.

20 Mar 2009

Understanding mental illness through gene-environment interactions

Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier, is very pleased to present a special section of its February 1st issue devoted to fundamental new insights into epigenetics, a field of research devoted to understanding how the environment can produce long-lasting or even heritable changes in gene function without altering the DNA sequence.

17 Mar 2009

Intelligence is strongly influenced by the quality of the brain's axons

They say a picture tells a thousand stories, but can it also tell how smart you are? Actually, say UCLA researchers, it can.

17 Mar 2009

Hyperbaric therapy for autism shows potential

Hyperbaric treatment for children with autism has reportedly led to improvements in the condition, though previous studies were uncontrolled.

15 Mar 2009

Survey explores medical care for children with autism using CAM treatments

In a national survey conducted by the University of Minnesota, primary care physicians report that they are more likely to ask patients with autism about complementary alternative medicine (CAM) use and desire more CAM education for this population.

12 Mar 2009

Children of older fathers perform less well in a range of cognitive tests during infancy and early childhood

In contrast, the study finds that children with older mothers gain higher scores in the same tests - designed to measure the ability to think and reason, including concentration, learning, memory, speaking and reading skills.

10 Mar 2009

Discovery of genetic variation linked to both autism and gastrointestinal dysfunction

A study led by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) and Vanderbilt University have identified a specific gene variant that links increased genetic risk for autism with gastrointestinal (GI) conditions.

2 Mar 2009

Stanford/Packard researchers recruit children for study of the biology of autism

Scientists have put forward many theories about why children with autism struggle to communicate with other people, but they have yet to find definitive answers.

23 Feb 2009

Significant Rett syndrome discovery

A paper published online today in Nature Neuroscience reveals the presence of methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) in glia. MeCP2 is a protein associated with a variety of neurological disorders, including Rett Syndrome, the most physically disabling of the autism spectrum disorders.

23 Feb 2009

Investing in personalized medicine will benefit Canada

Canada has the opportunity to be an international leader in personalized medicine and needs to invest in this area for the health of Canadians and to reap the benefits of job creation, writes Dr. Thomas Hudson in a commentary http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/rapidpdf/cmaj.1090199 released online today in CMAJ ( Canadian Medical Association Journal ).

20 Feb 2009