Autism News and Research

Latest Autism News and Research

Researchers seek to settle some discrepancies related to brain anatomy and ASD

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder are often lumped into a single catch-all group, despite significant differences in symptom profile and severity.

8 May 2019

Autism estimates for the USA are wildly inaccurate, say experts at INSAR 2019

Research presented at INSAR 2019 suggests that autism estimates are wildly inaccurate as they do not involve sufficient data on families from ethnic minority backgrounds.

7 May 2019

Lack of autism risk gene disrupts prefrontal cortex connectivity in mice

Adult male mice lacking the gene Shank3 display structural and functional deficits in the prefrontal cortex, finds a study published in JNeurosci.

From Society for Neuroscience 7 May 2019

UK Government to 'consider all options' to control measles outbreak

Like many other countries, the UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, has said that the government is being forced to “consider all options” to control the spread of measles after a rise in cases.

6 May 2019

The sense of touch is defined and fully functional before birth

All the surface of the human body is represented in the cerebral cortex in a transversal band localized at the external part of the cerebral hemispheres: the somatosensory cortex.

3 May 2019

Novel chemical probe enables live imaging of brain immune cells

Researchers in South Korea and Singapore have, for the first time, developed a chemical probe that enables live-imaging of a type of immune cells in the brain, known as microglia, in a live animal brain.

3 May 2019

Targeting antidiuretic hormone vasopressin shows promise for autism

Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder with no known drug treatment up until now. Researchers have finally found tweaking certain hormones could help patients with autism. There were two independent clinical trials including children and adults with autism that altered the effects of the hormone vasopressin and to assess the effects on social functioning.

2 May 2019

Viral infection in utero associated with behavioral abnormalities in offspring

Male and female rats whose mother experienced a simulated viral infection during pregnancy behave abnormally, consistent with behavioural alterations in autism or schizophrenia, research by the University of Saskatchewan shows.

2 May 2019

Mount Sinai study identifies 20 new genetic associations with bipolar disorder

In the largest study of its kind, involving more than 50,000 subjects in 14 countries, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and more than 200 collaborating institutions have identified 20 new genetic associations with one of the most prevalent and elusive mental illnesses of our time--bipolar disorder.

1 May 2019

Globally measles at an all time high

In the United States, the number of cases of vaccine-preventable viral disease measles is on a 25-year record high. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the main reason behind this is inadequate vaccination of the general population. Spread of misinformation regarding vaccine safety is to be blamed for inadequate vaccination of the population says the agency.

30 Apr 2019

Prenatal stress may be involved in shaping psychiatric resilience later in life

Maternal stress during or after pregnancy has been repeatedly associated with subsequent psychiatric problems and non-coding 'epigenetic' DNA changes during childhood.

30 Apr 2019

Researchers find potential link between autism and antidepressant use during pregnancy

An international team led by Duke-NUS Medical School has found a potential link between autistic-like behavior in adult mice and exposure to a common antidepressant in the womb.

30 Apr 2019

Autism diagnoses in children as young as 14 months appears to be remarkably stable

Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder by trained professionals in children as young as 14 months are remarkably stable, suggesting that accurate screening and earlier treatment is feasible, report scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine in a study publishing online April 29, 2019 in JAMA Pediatrics.

30 Apr 2019