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Autism spectrum disorders news

Autism spectrum disorders

Researchers work to improve communication support for children with autism

For people with autism—especially those with intellectual disabilities, or others with extensive support needs—communicating needs and ideas can be difficult. Many rely on intense individualized support and educational ...

Genetics

In search for autism's causes, look at genes, not vaccines, researchers say

Earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged that the search for autism's cause—a question that has kept researchers busy for the better part of six decades—would be over in just ...

Neuroscience

Protein abnormality illuminates communication struggles in autism

A DGIST research team identified that the mutation of the collybistin protein found in autistic patients weakens the brain's inhibitory synaptic function and leads to communication deficiencies. The results of this research ...

Neuroscience

Study maps brain wiring differences in youth with autism

Researchers at the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have uncovered new insights into how brain wiring differs in children and young adults with ...

Autism spectrum disorders

What to know about the CDC's baseless new guidance on autism

The rewriting of a page on the CDC's website to assert the false claim that vaccines may cause autism sparked a torrent of anger and anguish from doctors, scientists, and parents who say Health and Human Services Secretary ...

Autism spectrum disorders

Vaccines 'don't cause autism': How scientists figured that out

In the late 1990s, a theory gripped parents around the world: What if childhood vaccines—particularly the combined measles-mumps-rubella vaccine—cause autism? Nearly three decades later, the debunked theory has gained ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Autism diagnoses rising among U.S. children, adults

Big surges in new autism diagnoses among young adults, as well a rise in diagnoses for girls and young women, have driven a near-tripling of U.S. autism cases in just over a decade, researchers report.

Neuroscience

How the brain plans ahead to predict the world

Your brain not only processes what you see but continuously makes predictions based on your experiences. This process may be less finetuned in people with autism.

Neuroscience

Brain organoids reveal autism biology and potential treatments

Using stem cells generated from patients with a rare and severe form of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, Scripps Research scientists have grown personalized "mini-brains" (or organoids) to study the disorder ...

Genetics

Increased autism risk linked to Y chromosome, study finds

Increased risk for autism appears to be linked to the Y chromosome, a Geisinger Health System study has found, offering a new explanation for the greater prevalence of autism in males. The results are published in Nature ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Are autistic adults more vulnerable to criminal exploitation?

In a new study, Flinders university researchers have tested the commonly held belief that autistic adults are more prone than non-autistic adults to criminal exploitation due to difficulties in recognizing criminal intent.

Autism spectrum disorders

Research finds neurons look different in children with autism

There is new evidence that the cells responsible for communication in the brain may be structured differently in children with autism. Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester ...

Autism spectrum disorders

Pandemic-era babies do not have higher autism risk, finds study

Children born during the first year of the pandemic, including those exposed to COVID in utero, were no more likely to screen positive for autism than unexposed or pre-pandemic children, found researchers from Columbia University ...

Autism spectrum disorders

Q&A: Researcher discusses autism in young adulthood

Our understanding of autism has changed significantly in the past years. Previously viewed as a rare childhood disorder with a focus on deficits and pathology, autism is now recognized as a common, lifelong and heterogenous ...